Caroline got a job as a cleaning lady in New York and went to her first assignment. It was a beautiful house in Manhattan, but she was shocked to find a picture of her mother in the office. Then, a man walked in.
Caroline had recently moved to New York with her friend, Melissa, to chase their Broadway dreams. Before they could find an apartment, they needed jobs. Melissa got a position at a clothing store, and Caroline was hired by a domestic cleaning agency.
The job was perfect for her. It wasn’t too demanding, and she enjoyed cleaning because it helped her relax. Plus, if no one was home, she could practice her singing.
Caroline couldn’t stop thinking about her mother before starting her first job. Her mother, Helen, had never wanted Caroline to follow her dreams or live in New York.
Caroline grew up in Philadelphia and didn’t have a father, as Helen never talked about him. Helen also had a strong dislike for New York and had always been overprotective of Caroline, which made her feel trapped.
When Caroline and Melissa planned their move, Caroline knew her mother would not approve. She worried Helen might even fake being sick to make her stay. But Caroline was determined to pursue her dreams, so she left a short note on her mother’s dresser while Helen was asleep and left.
It had been a few days, and Helen hadn’t called, which felt strange, but Caroline thought her mother was probably just angry. She hoped Helen would come around once she made it on Broadway. For now, Caroline focused on her cleaning job.
The agency director had told her that an older man lived in the house alone, so it wasn’t very messy. Following the instructions, Caroline used the key under the mat to enter the house and started cleaning right away, beginning with the kitchen, then the living room, and finally moving to the bedroom.
Caroline was nearly finished with her cleaning when she noticed a photo of her mother on the office mantelpiece. She hesitated before asking, “I’m almost done, sir. But may I ask a question? Who is this woman?”
She was standing at the entrance of the serious-looking office. There were no instructions against entering, so she carefully continued her work, avoiding the desk area.
The office was impressive, with a beautiful fireplace, a mantelpiece, and large bookshelves lining one wall. It looked like something from a movie.
Caroline quickly and thoroughly cleaned the office but stopped when she saw the photo on the mantelpiece. The woman in the picture looked like her mother, but much younger. She wondered aloud, “Why is my mother in this man’s pictures?”
Just then, she heard footsteps, and an older man entered the room. “Oh, hello there! You must be the new cleaning lady. I’m Richard Smith. I own this house,” he said with a friendly smile. “Are you finished in here?”
Caroline replied, “I’m almost done, sir. But may I ask a question?” She hesitated, hoping he wouldn’t mind her asking about the photo. “Who is this woman?”
Richard put on his glasses and looked at the photo. “Ah yes. That’s Helen. She was the love of my life,” he said.
Caroline’s curiosity was piqued. “What happened to her?” she asked.
Richard sighed, “She died in a bus crash. She was pregnant at the time. I couldn’t even go to her funeral because her mother hated me. It was a tough time. I tried to move on, but I never really did. I still love and miss her.”
Caroline felt a chill. “Sir, I’m sorry to intrude, and thank you for sharing that. But this woman… she looks so much like my mother. It’s incredible.”
Richard looked confused. “What do you mean?”
Caroline explained, “Well, my mother, also named Helen, looks just like this woman. Of course, she’s older now, but the resemblance is striking. I’m almost sure this is her,” she said, pointing to the photograph.
Richard asked Caroline, “Helen? Your mother’s name is Helen? Where did you grow up?”
“Philadelphia,” Caroline replied, shrugging. She suddenly realized that if the woman in the photo was her mother, this man might be her father.
Richard put his hands over his mouth in shock. “This can’t be possible…” he whispered. “Can I have your mother’s phone number?”
“Sure,” Caroline said and gave it to him.
“Can you stay here while I call her?” Richard asked. Caroline agreed.
Richard made the call from his office phone. After a few rings, her mother’s voice came on the line. “Hello? Is it you, Caroline?”
Richard glanced at Caroline but spoke first. “Is this Helen Geller?”
“Yes. Who am I speaking to?” Helen responded from the other end.
Richard’s voice wavered with emotion as he said, “Helen, it’s Richard.”
“Helen, who? Wait a minute. Richard Morris? What do you want after all these years?” Helen’s voice became cold.
Caroline and Richard looked at each other, puzzled. Richard pressed on, “What do you mean after all these years? I thought you were dead!”
“What?” Helen replied, confused.
Richard explained that he had lost Helen and their unborn baby in an accident. He told her how her mother had kept him away from the funeral and didn’t tell him anything afterward. But Helen was baffled and told him her side of the story.
“My mother said you called and decided you wanted nothing to do with me. So I raised my daughter on my own,” Helen explained. Caroline was stunned by this unexpected twist.
Richard continued, “Helen, I would never have left you. I never moved on. I’ve thought about you and our baby every day. I’ve been in pain for almost twenty years.”
Helen was silent. Then she said, “I can’t believe Mom would do this. But that was her way. I don’t know what to do now. Wait. How did you find out I’m still alive?”
Caroline spoke up, “Mom, I’m here.” She quickly explained what had happened and assured her mother that she was okay in New York.
Helen was in disbelief. “I can’t even ask my mother why she did something so cruel. She passed away years ago. But anyway, when are you coming back home, Caroline?”
Caroline replied, “I’m not coming back until I make it on Broadway. And now, I have another reason to stay here.” She glanced at Richard with a small smile.
Helen said, “Fine, but I’m coming to New York soon,” and then hung up. Richard and Caroline stared at each other in silence for a moment before speaking.
“So, I guess you’re my dad,” Caroline said with a smile. Richard laughed, and that helped them start to connect.
What can we learn from this story?
1. Let your children follow their dreams. Caroline left because her mother was too protective. It’s important to guide your children but let them make their own choices.
2. Sometimes, parents don’t always have your best interests at heart. Helen’s mother did something awful to both Helen and Richard, and they might never know why.
3. Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
My Neighbor Was Complaining That I Went Out Bra-Less, I Responded With a Petty Revenge
Sometimes, our relationship with our neighbors may be just epic. There’re people who dislike literally everything, and they may add a grain of salt to our lives by their permanent claims. Such thing happened to our today’s heroine, who wrote a letter to our editorial to tell us about an absurd claim from her neighbor. The woman, however, never lost her temper and provided her neighbor with an epic feedback that she will probably not be able to forget.
A woman wrote to us to tell her, nearly dramatic, story.
A young woman, 20, has written a letter to our editorial. She told us about an incident that happened to her recently, and she revealed how she handled it, in a very unusual way. The woman began her story, saying, that she lives in a college dorm and their accommodation is arranged in a way that they have all-female floors.
The woman revealed that, by some reason, she has always been quarreling with her neighbors, who are her fellow groupmates. They live next door to her, and they have always been complaining about everything and anything.
She wrote, «Sometimes, it really looked like these 4 ladies hated me, for nothing. I barely talked to them, and we hadn’t had anything in common with them. I can’t remember doing anything wrong to them, but they would still always tease me and complain about me to our principals. I tried to remain calm, always ignoring their remarks and complaints, until one day.»
The woman faced the most absurd claim in her life from her dorm neighbors.
The young lady goes on with her story, saying, that in that group of people, who were permanently dissatisfied with her only existence, there was an «informal leader», a girl named Donna. She has been very nasty since their first meeting in the dorm, and she had always been the source of never-ending complaints about our heroine.
The woman wrote, «Donna has a boyfriend, who doesn’t attend our college, and, despite the strict rules for visitors, they breach all of them, and he comes to her room regularly. I knew about that, and I was never complaining about this, because I didn’t want to be like these people. But Donna was purposefully provoking me for some reactions.»
«She was spreading the rumors that I was a light-minded person and that I was trying to seduce her boyfriend, which wasn’t true at all, I just didn’t care about him and I even didn’t pay attention on what he actually looked like. If someone asked me to point at him in a crowd, I’d never do that, because I wouldn’t even recognize him. All these rumors were just rumors, and Donna was trying to make a stir, obviously, and to grab some of other people’s attention.»
Donna paid an immense attention even to our heroine’s outfits.
The woman wrote, «One day, I left my room and went down the hall to the water fountain. I refilled my water bottle, and returned back to my room. At that moment, I was wearing a red tank top and no bra. My top was fitted, but it wasn’t see through. There was a group of people hanging out in the hall, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention. An hour later, I got a violent knock on the door and there was Donna, and she was shouting at me from the beginning.»
The woman goes on, saying, «Donna was totally furious, and she shouted that if I go out into the hall again I must put a bra on. She said that her boyfriend was out there, and he was staring at me.»
The woman admitted that she has always been super non-confrontational, but this time she was fuming. She didn’t show her emotions at that moment, but she already knew what to do next.
The woman’s petty revenge came instantly.
The fed up woman wanted to compromise at first. She wrote, «I saw no problem in wearing a bra, but then I just thought that this unfair attitude would go on and on, until I react to it somehow. Next time they would complain about anything else, not less absurd than this time. I wasn’t just ready for this, I wanted to live a normal life from then on. So, I did what Donna wanted me to do, but in my own way.»
The woman revealed, «As soon as Donna asked me to wear a bra, I did this next time I left my room. But I was wearing jeans and my sports bra, and nothing else. So, technically, I did what she wanted me to do, I wore a bra.»
«Her eyes were very wide when she saw me going to the bathroom like this. But she didn’t say anything anymore. She was obviously shocked and couldn’t provide any arguments against my actions. The floor was all-female, no men were ever allowed there, and if she was the person who breached the rules, she was the one who would handle the consequences then.»
And here’re the stories of 15 people, whose revenge to their offenders was so smart, that it deserved to be called an art.
Preview photo credit bruce mars / Unsplash
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