A man is abandoned by the stepson he raised as his own after his wife died, and is unexpectedly rescued by a kind young man.
Do you believe in karma? Bob didn’t. He lived his life and made his decisions with no thought for anyone except himself. What he wanted was what was right, no matter the cost to everyone else.
Bob never imagined that his attitude would reverberate down the years until he found himself standing by the side of a lonely road watching his only family drive away, leaving him alone, abandoned.
Bob was stunned when his stepson turned him out like a stray dog | Source: Shutterstock.com
The man driving away from Bob was Sam, his stepson, the boy he’d raised as his own and loved with all his heart from the time he was five years old. Back then, Bob had been on the verge of marriage when he’d met Sam’s mother, Adele.
Adele had been beautiful, charming, exciting, and Bob had walked out on his fiancée without an explanation. He left his old life behind like a dirty shirt and married the wealthy Adele.
For thirty years Bob and Adele had been happy. They traveled around the world living a life of luxury in the inheritance she had received on the death of her wealthy old husband — Sam’s father.
Bob thought they had been a happy family until Adele had become very ill. Unfortunately, not all the money in the world could save her from the terrible cancer that burned through her frail body.
Selfish Bob had walked away from his fiancée to marry a rich woman with a child | Source: Pexels
When they lowered Adele’s coffin into the ground, Bob had stood by the graveside, shaking. “My love,” he whispered, “I will never forget you, never! And I promise you I will look after Sam.”
But unfortunately for Bob, Sam had made no such promises. A few days after Adele’s death, her lawyer called Bob and Sam and explained that she hadn’t left a will, and the estate would be in Sam’s hands provisionally.
Be careful of the examples you give the young because they will surely follow them.
“Until we can ascertain Bob’s rights, Sam,” the lawyer explained. “Since the bulk of the estate was left by your father…”
Sam had smiled. “Of course…That seems very fair to me, and Bob, you can be sure I’ll be fair.” Bob smiled and thanked Sam for his kindness, never imagining the true intention behind his words.
Bob raised Adele’s son as if he were his own | Source: Unsplash
That weekend, Sam invited Bob to go for a drive out in the country to get some fresh air. “Bob,” he said. “We need to get rid of the cobwebs before we can start a new life!”
The two had driven off in Sam’s convertible and Bob had noticed that his stepson was uncharacteristically quiet, even though he smiled a lot, and looked amused.
When they were outside the city limits, Sam stopped the car. “Get out,” he said. “Get out now.”
“Sam?” asked Bob, bewildered. “What’s going on?”
When Adele passed away, Bob was devastated | Source: Pexels
“As I told you, I’m getting rid of the cobwebs, starting a new life,” Sam said with a nasty little smile. “And you’re dead weight, old man.”
“But…I promised your mother I’d look out for you…” Bob gasped.
“But I never made her any promises,” his stepson said. “I don’t owe YOU anything. You lived off her for thirty years, that’s long enough, don’t you think?”
“I love you!” whispered Bob with tears in his eyes. “You were like a son to me, I thought you cared for me!”
“Care?” asked Sam. “What I care about is all that money and I’m not about to share it with you. It’s MY money, old man, so get lost!”
His stepson Sam seemed very supportive, but after the funeral, Bob was in for a surprise | Source: Unsplash
Sam made a threatening gesture and Bob stumbled out of the car trembling. He stood and watched as Sam’s car vanished in a dwindling cloud of dust.
He looked around. The emptiness stretched out in all directions from horizon to horizon, and he had nothing except his walking stick. He started wobbling after Sam’s car, thinking that sooner or later he’d come across a house, or be overtaken by another vehicle.
Surely someone would be kind enough to stop for an old man? But car after car sped by, and no one stopped. After a while, Bob stopped trying to flag them down. He just stopped where he was.
The sun was going down and it was getting very cold when a large expensive-looking car stopped next to him. “Sir,” asked a kindly voice. “Are you alright?”
The lawyer told Sam and Bob that Adele had died without a will | Source: Unsplash
Bob felt tears fill his eyes at the sound of the concern in that stranger’s voice. “No,” he said shakily. “I’ve been abandoned here. Please, if you could take me to the nearest town, a police station? If it’s not too much trouble!”
“Abandoned?” the man sounded shocked. “That’s shocking! Please get in.”
The driver was a young man in his early thirties with a friendly smile and kindly blue eyes. He reminded Bob of someone, but he couldn’t remember who it was. Bob told the man, whose name was Jake Kale his whole story.
Jake was indignant, and when he saw that Bob was shaking from the cold, he decided to take him home. “I’ll take you to the police tomorrow morning, Bob,” he said. “Tonight you get warm and have a good meal and a restful sleep.”
Sam invited Bob to go for a drive | Source: Unsplash
Jake led Bob into a lovely cozy home and introduced him to his wife Angela and his daughter Faye. “My mother is joining us for dinner, Bob,” Jake said. As he was speaking, a cheerful voice called out a greeting and a sweet-faced woman in her sixties walked in.
She had Jake’s eyes, Bob noticed, and once again he had the eery feeling that he knew her from somewhere, but where? Bob was stunned when the woman turned and saw him standing there. She cried out, and Jake had to grab her before she fell.
“Mom!” Jake cried, “Are you OK?”
“That man…” gasped Peggy Kale. “Bob…It’s you!”
“It’s MY money, old man, so get lost!” | Source: Unsplash
“I’m Bob,” said Bob bewildered, “But how did you know?” Then he saw the years fall away from that sweet face. “Peggy! After all these years!”
“How did you get here? How did you find us?” Peggy asked.
Bob shook his head. “It was Jake who found me, rescued me. I was abandoned on the road. He picked me up. He’s your son?”
“Yes,” Peggy said quietly. “My son…and yours.”
A kind man driving by stopped and took Bob home | Source: Unsplash
“Mine?” whispered Bob. “You were pregnant? You didn’t tell me!”
“You walked away a week before our wedding,” Peggy said. “I didn’t know then — and later it didn’t seem to matter. You didn’t want me, and I wasn’t going to use my baby to pressure you.”
Bob lowered his head and cried bitter tears. “I raised Adele’s son!” he whispered. “You knew that?”
And as Peggy nodded, Bob continued bitterly: “It was Adele’s boy — whom I thought was my boy, who abandoned me by the side of the road like a stray dog.”
Jake’s mother was the fiancée Bob had abandoned | Source: Pexels
Peggy smiled. “And it was my son who saved you…Think about that, Bob!”
Bob did. He spent the night tossing and turning, thinking about the choices he’d made, the examples he’d given Sam. He’d raised a selfish, grasping, dishonest man, and Peggy had raised a good, generous one.
The next day, Jake took Bob to a police station and lodged a complaint against Sam. Jake got Bob a good lawyer and the courts awarded Bob half of Adele’s substantial estate.
Shortly after the court’s decision, Bob signed over every cent to his son Jake, and to his granddaughter. He begged Peggy’s forgiveness and he is now working hard at making it up to his son and his ex-fiancée.
Bob found the family he didn’t know he had | Source: Unsplash
What can we learn from this story?
- Be careful of the examples you give the young because they will surely follow them. Bob was a selfish man, and that was the example he gave his stepson.
- Fate will bring you face to face with your greatest mistakes so you can make amends. The man who rescued Bob was his biological son whom he had apparently abandoned before he was born.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a woman who is shocked when she sees a homeless stranger wearing the pendant she’d buried with her fiancé after his death in a car crash.
This account is inspired by our reader’s story and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life.
‘Outdated, punishing rules’ – Mom fights for son, 8, to keep his long hair despite schools rejecting him
Despite the fact that we all have mixed memories of school, we can all relate to the rules. This is a tumultuous moment of highs and lows.
While some rules, like the one against wearing jewelry to athletic events, make sense, it seems unnecessary to send someone home because they brought a certain soda or because they are wearing too much makeup. It also misses teaching opportunities for the kids involved.
The strict dress codes enforced by schools often clash with the times in children’s lives when they want to be different and express who they are.
For one mother and her child, these rules might have been excessive, and they might have kept an 8-year-old boy from getting an excellent education.
Farouk James of London, England, attracts the attention of model scouts due to his amazing hairstyle. He is currently working as a child model and has completed photo shoots in Italy and New York.
But his appearance has only made things difficult for him in the classroom; multiple institutions have rejected him due to the length of his hair.
Bonnie Miller, James’s mother, says she was told when her older brother was in school that his hair was too short.
Bonnie claims that Farouk’s father is from Ghana and that, in accordance with traditional traditions, his parents waited until he was three years old to cut his hair.
“At that point, he was attached— and so was I, to be honest— with his beautiful hair,” Bonnie stated to CBS News. “We kept the hair only.”
The family lives in the UK, where most schools have a policy against guys wearing long hair, even if girls are allowed to.
Bonnie claims that cutting a child’s hair violates their human rights.
“I will not give up trying to persuade governments to put legislation in place to protect children from these outdated, punishing rules,” his mother Bonnie wrote in an Instagram post.
“Despite the fact that Farok has done nothing wrong, you reject him! He will have to say farewell to his buddies when they are all accepted into the universities he so desperately wants to attend.
Because of this, Bonnie even started a Change.org petition to make hair discrimination illegal in the UK.
“We’re assembling a real team and dubbed it the Mane Generation,” Bonnie said. “We are going to fight this until these rules are changed. It also spreads over the entire world, not only the United Kingdom.
Farouk’s mother has an Instagram account that boasts over a quarter of a million followers, showcasing his lively nature and role as a child model.
They still get hate mail, though, despite all the love and support he gets online. Bonnie stated she received a lot of negative comments after discussing the family’s search for a school that will welcome Farouk and his hair on the well-known U.K. TV morning show “This Morning.”
“This is mental health week, so I’m surprised to be receiving lots of negative comments about Farouk’s hair,” Bonnie said in May of last year.
“Farouk refuses to cut his hair to appease people; it is a God-given feature of him, and he does not keep it long at my request.”
Bonnie argues that the clothing regulations for boys and girls in schools are outdated and often discriminatory because many schools prohibit braids and dreadlocks.
The mother vows that she will never give up on gaining acceptance for Farouk, his hair, and all the other children who encounter discrimination because they want to display their cultural heritage and identity.
In 2022, it will not be acceptable for people in charge of our children’s education to turn away a student because of the color of their hair. Farouk’s hair is an essential component of who he is. These rules should be prohibited.
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