A poor widowed mother of four offered a drenched old stranger shelter to wait out the rain. The next day, she sold the only house she had for just $1 and decided never to return to that house again.
Angelina Gibson, 34, sat by her window, staring at the rainy afternoon that ruined her day. She sold flowers and eggs on the street daily, and with the scanty amount she made, she would buy groceries to feed her four children.
Three years ago, Angelina’s husband, Mark, died a month after their fourth son, Robin, was born. The poor woman found no good job due to being illiterate, but she managed as much as possible. Her only source of income was hit hard that day because of the heavy showers.
Angelina pressed her teary eyes on the window pane and looked outside. She wished for bright weather, but it started to rain more heavily than before. Then she noticed an older man soaking wet, waiting on the farther end of the street…
“Oh, that poor old man. What is he doing there? He’s drenched,” she thought and watched for a while. The man seemed fragile and couldn’t walk for long. He stood under a closed shop’s shutter, but the fierce showers soaked him wet.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked him, putting on a tattered sweater to cover up.
Angelina felt sorry for the older man. He was well-dressed and looked rich. “But why is he walking on the street if he’s rich? Does he not have a car like all rich men do?” she wondered. Unable to bear it further, Angelina grabbed an old umbrella and rushed outside to the man.
“My house is nearby. You can wait there until it stops raining if you don’t mind,” she said, offering the stranger a shelter to wait out the rain.
The older man was bewildered by the woman’s strange offer of help. He smirked and walked with her, although he was still baffled by why she offered him temporary shelter.
“Um…Is this your house?” the old man said, grinning. “By the way, I’m Joe Tyler…nice to meet you, Ms…?”
“Angelina Gibson!” the woman said as she dusted a makeshift chair made from old tires. “Please have a seat.”
Joe looked around the house and saw Angelina’s four children sleeping on the floor. “Why are your children sleeping?”
Angelina told him they were hungry and hadn’t eaten anything for lunch. “I’m sure God will help me feed them a good dinner. But it should stop raining first.”
Joe was astonished by the woman’s confidence. He noticed Angelina’s house was too compact for a family of five, and the condition of the house bothered him. It did not have any appealing furniture, and their old TV was broken, cobwebs visible around it. At first glance, Joe surmised that the woman had been struggling with their living conditions.
After moments of silence and deep thought, Joe asked Angelina to move in with him, much to her astonishment. “What? I don’t get you, Mr. Tyler. Did I just hear you ask me to move in with you?” she asked him. “Why would you want me to do that? And what’s wrong? Why are you staring at me?”
She looked at the old stranger, and for a second, she felt she had done something wrong in offering him shelter. “Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked him, putting on a tattered sweater to cover up.
“You remind me of my daughter who died of tuberculosis when she was 15. My wife died a year later, and I’ve been living alone since then for 40 years,” Joe recalled.
At this point, Angelina regretted jumping to conclusions about the older man and smiled. She was pleased to hear him regard her as his daughter.
“My car broke down. I was walking to the garage when the rain poured, and I got stranded. But I guess the Almighty had planned our meeting,” Joe joked. “Why don’t you move into my house with your kids?”
The older man’s offer astonished Angelina. “Are you serious? Please tell me you’re joking because nobody would ask a poor woman and her family to move into a big house.”
“I’m serious. I’m taking you and your children to my house,” Joe said.
Angelina was stunned. Although she was reluctant, she couldn’t resist the offer for the sake of her four children. She wanted them to have the good things in life, unlike her. She nodded in hesitance.
“But I have two small conditions. You should agree to them,” Joe added, brewing Angelina’s curiosity. “I will live in the same house with you and your kids. I’ll pay for their education, and you can take care of me like my daughter.”
Angelina smiled, a spark of hope glistening in her teary eyes. She had grown up her entire life in an orphanage, so when Joe asked her to be his daughter, she was overwhelmed. But her joy slowly faded when the older man proposed his second and most important condition.
“And my next and important condition is…I want you to sell this house tomorrow.”
“Sell this house? But why? And who would buy it? Just look around… It’s a mess and dirty. I’m sure nobody will buy it unless they’re blind,” Angelina replied.
“I know somebody who needs this house. And I wasn’t done, my dear,” Joe said, building more tension in Angelina. “I want you to sell this house for nothing more than $1!”
“For $1? What?” Angelina jumped in shock.
“Yes, for only $1. I just came across a poor family of three who lives in an old trailer. She is a mother like you and has two small children. I want you to give this house to her for only $1. Consider it your way of paying it forward.”
The older man’s words and compassion moved Angelina. She shed tears of joy and readily agreed. At that moment, it stopped raining, and a ray of sunshine shone over Angelina’s humble house.
The next day, she and her children moved in with Joe, and before crossing the street, she stopped at the trailer he mentioned the previous day.
She approached the poor woman living in the trailer and gave her the keys to her house. “Take this…I want you to live in my house with your children,” she said, extending the keys to the poor woman.
“What? Do I know you? And are you seriously giving away your house to me?” the woman cried.
“Yes. But not for free. You have to pay me. Just give me $1, and the house is all yours!”
The woman couldn’t believe her ears. She hurriedly gave Angelina $1 and gathered her children and things to move into their new house. As the poor woman greeted her goodbye, Angelina called out to her. “Remember to pay it forward!” she said and drove away with her savior, Joe Tyler.
From that day on, Angelina never sold flowers and eggs on the streets. She took care of Joe while her children went to good private schools. She cooked the best meals for the kind older man who couldn’t help but shed tears of joy at having a loving daughter and grandkids in his life!
