Recently, I received an unexpected knock on my door. To my shock, there she was — my mother, frail and looking old. She looked at me with a mix of regret and desperation in her eyes. Hi, darling! I am your mother and I need your help. My mind raced with a mix of confusion, joy, and anger. Before I could say anything, she shocked me so much to the core that tears streamed down my cheeks when she said, “Do you still…
Rosa was a clerk at a supermarket. That day resembled like any other, but the usual chaos and the noise made by the customers were disturbed by loud crying of a baby. Since it didn’t stop for quite some time, Rosa went around the aisles in order to see if a mother needed help with her child. To her surprise, the baby whose crying caught her attention was placed inside a cardboard box, unattended. Next to it, there was a note that read, “I will always love you, Sue.”
Years went by, and Sue grew into a beautiful and successful young lady thanks to Rosa, who adopted her and raised her as her own.
Sue was forever grateful to her adoptive mother, Rosa, who made sure she never lacked anything growing up—most of all, love and care.
After she graduated from college, Sue decided to become a social media influencer. Her account attracted a huge number of followers, and everyone enjoyed her inspiring posts. In one of them, she shared her life story, how she was left by her birth mother inside a box at a store and how Rosa found her and changed the course of her life.
She started appearing on other people’s podcasts and became sort of a celebrity. Life felt good, but no matter how satisfied she was with her accomplishments, Sue never stopped thinking of her mother. She couldn’t understand how she could leave her like that. Why didn’t she love her? Why couldn’t she care for her? Those were the questions that haunted her.
One day, while she was preparing herself breakfast, Sue heard a loud knocking on the door.
When she answered it, her heart started pounding. The woman at the door looked familiar. She resembled the one on the photos left inside the box in which Sue was found.
“Hi, darling. It’s me, your mother, and I need your help,” the woman said with a quiet voice while Sue’s heart filled with an unexplained mixture of happiness and anger.
Before Sue could say anything, her mother asked, “Do you still have the note I left with you when I left you safely in the store?”
“Safely?” Sue thought to herself. How was abandoning a child at a supermarket safe, she wondered. But, instead of confronting her, Sue answered calmly, “Yes, I have it. I kept it because it is the only memory of you.”
The mother started apologizing, saying she never wanted to abandon Sue, but she had no choice because she got herself in trouble and was running from some dangerous people she owed money to. She was scared for Sue’s safety so she thought it would be for the best if she left it.
Sue asked her why she never tried to find her after that, but her mom said she was too scared.
With pleading eyes, the mom said, “I need a place to stay until I get back on my feet. I have nowhere else to go.”
Sue could feel her mother wasn’t telling the truth, but it was Rosa who told her she needed to give her mother a chance.
Eventually, Sue agreed, and her mother moved in with her.
At the beginning, things felt right. Sue’s mom offered to help around the house, and the two bonded, but sadly, that didn’t last long.
One day, Sue returned home from work earlier than usual. As she entered the house, she could hear drawers open and close. Quietly, she got upstairs and entered her bedroom. She was her mother putting some of her jewelry in her purse.
Sue was shocked. “Mom, what are you doing? Are you stealing from me?” she asked in disbelief from the sight of her own mother being caught red handed.
“Honey, I need money, and you have plenty of jewelry, I thought I could sell some of it.”
Sue grabbed the jewelry. Among the pieces was the diamond necklace Rosa gave her when she graduated from university.
“Do you know how hard Rosa worked in order to be able to save money for this diamond necklace?” Sue yelled.
“But you have so much, let me sell some of them so that we can have the money,” the mom continued. “We?” Sue asked. “This isn’t about us, this is about you. I forgave you for abandoning me, opened the doors to my home to you, and this is how you pay me back? By stealing from me?”
The mom started crying. “Please, don’t get mad at me. I am sorry. I am going to change.”
But Sue didn’t want to listen to her. She told her that she already gave her a chance and that was it. She asked her mother to pack her belongings and leave the house. It was obvious she only returned because she learned Sue was successful.
That evening, Sue went to Rosa’s place, the only place that ever felt like home.
When she told her what happened, Rosa said, “You took a chance on someone who loved you, that’s what you take away from this experience.”
Sue was happy for having Rosa in her life, but she still couldn’t help feeling hurt that her mother was, once again, absent from her world.
