Cardiac arrest.
The neighbors began to gather at the door of the house. Some were murmuring among themselves.
“Poor thing… she was always alone.”
“That boy is the only one who came to see her.
An older woman from the alley approached me.
“Son… you were like his family.
Those words made me cry even more.
I was just a student who had gone to clean his house.
But at some point… she had become something more.
Something similar to a grandmother.
The funeral was simple.
Very simple.
In reality, there was almost no one there.
Only me… and some neighbors who barely knew her.
None of his children appeared.
Not a single call.
Not a wreath of flowers.
Nothing.
When the short wake was over, the funeral home manager approached me.
“Are you Diego?”
“Yes…
“The lady left this for you.
He handed me a white envelope.
It was an old envelope, folded carefully. On the front, in a trembling handwriting, it read:
“For Diego.”
I felt a lump in my throat.
I opened the envelope slowly.
Inside was a handwritten letter.
I took a breath and began to read.
“Dear Diego,”
“If you’re reading this letter, it means I’m gone.”
“Forgive me for not having paid you the money I promised you during these months.”
“I know you probably thought I was a stingy old woman or that I just forgot… but I didn’t.”
“Every day I saw how you cleaned my house, how you took me to the hospital, how you cooked for me without asking for anything in return.”
“Many times I wanted to give you the money… but I needed to be sure of something.”
“I needed to know if there were still good people in this world.”
My hands began to shake as I continued reading.
“My own children stopped visiting me years ago.”
“At first they called me… then less and less… until one day they just disappeared.”
“I wasn’t a perfect mother, but I loved them with all my heart.”
“When I got older and sick, I became a burden to them.”
“That’s why I decided to live alone in this house.”
“I thought I was going to die forgotten.”
“But then you came.”
My eyes were already completely clouded with tears.
“You weren’t my family.”
“You were not my grandson.”
“You didn’t even know me.”
“And yet you treated me with more affection than my own children.”
“You brought me food.”
“You took me to the hospital.”
“You would sit with me and listen to old stories that you had probably heard many times before.”
“And you never claimed me for the money.”
“Never once.”
I had to stop for a few seconds.
I took a deep breath.
Tears fell on the paper.
I kept reading.
“That’s why I made a decision.”
“If you made it to the end without abandoning this useless old woman… then you deserve to know the truth.”
“Diego, this house where I live is not just any house.”
Leave a Comment