Single Mom of 4 Dies in Car Crash with Eldest Son, Surviving Kids Meet Dad at Funeral for First Time – Story of the Day

When a terrible tragedy took away their only family, three five-year-olds stood in prayerful silence, wondering where life would take them, not knowing their estranged father was standing in the crowd.

It was a day when the light drizzle contrasted with the rays of sunlight peeking through the gray clouds.

At the cemetery, three little children watched as their mother and elder brother were lowered into the ground.

They stood in silence while the people around them couldn't stop crying or talked about the twisted game that fate was playing on the 5-year-old triplets.

The story of the broken Crompton family was very different half a decade ago…it was rooted in a love that was supposed to last forever.

Annie and Brandon were high school sweethearts who grew up together, and they got married the same day they graduated from university.

Soon, they went from being hopeless romantics who left home to excited parents of their precious first child, James. Family was a wonderful luxury, but it also meant that Annie and Brandon had to work twice as hard to provide for their child.

Annie started selling homemade jams while Brandon was away on meetings, tours, and conferences. With time, love was overtaken by exhaustion and the couple that once was inseparably in love grew distant without even realizing it.

James was the glue that kept Annie and Brandon together. Fifteen years passed, and one day, James' image of his father, his hero, shattered before his eyes.

He rushed to Annie with tears in his eyes and said, "Mom! I saw something terrible. Dad…with another woman…how could he? I don't want to be near him anymore. Let's get out of here!"

Annie was crushed, but she had had her suspicions for a while, so it was no surprise. That night, the ugly confrontation between Annie and her husband broke more than just the delicate vases in their home. In the middle of the rainy night, Annie packed up and walked out of the house with her son.

"Don't cry, sir. People are saying they're in a better place."

She didn't have a lot of savings, but she did have an aging father who would happily take them in. It was a difficult life, one where Annie had to work two jobs and then come home to care for a bedridden parent. Mother and son were just beginning to settle into this new phase when unexpected news shook their world again.

Two months after she left her husband, Annie found out she was pregnant. "With triplets!" she wept helplessly as James tried to comfort her.

It was a confusing feeling; scary and heartbreaking on one hand and immensely joyful on the other.

It was James who stepped up and eased the dilemma in his mother's mind.

"Mom, let's welcome my siblings with nothing but happiness. We'll work harder. We'll save more. I'm going to make sure the kiddos have the most beautiful childhood ever!" he promised his mother, gripping her hand.

And James fulfilled that promise. He was there by his mother's side when no one else was. He took a break from college to work and care for her around the clock. He was there, through the late-night emergencies, through the happier, lighter moments of joy and excitement, and through the scary night when the triplets were born, tiny and a month before their due date.

"You are my rays of sunshine–one, two, and…three!" James would gently boop the triplets' noses every night before sleeping in the bed right next to them.

After a difficult year of recovery, Annie was back on her feet, selling jams, while Brandon found a stable job in a call center. With every passing birthday of the triplets, it became easier and easier for Annie and her precious boy to provide everything that the kids could ask for.

Then one rainy evening, when Annie and James were returning from the farmers' market to pick up the triplets from kindergarten, an oncoming truck crashed into them, without sparing their last breaths for a final goodbye.

So as Judie, John, and Julia stood with a bunch of flowers in their hands, they were unaware of where life would take them.

And they didn't know that the weary man standing behind the crowd was their father.

Brandon looked like a different man. His eyes had reddened, his physique was weaker, and his hands were shaky from the desperate need for another swig of alcohol.

It turned out that his life went on a downward spiral soon after Annie and James left him. He never forgave himself for cheating on her and tried to drown his heartache and devastation in bottles of cheap rum. But there wasn't enough alcohol in the world to make him forget the blissful life he had thrown away.

So when he found out that the love of his life and his bright son had died, he could barely bring himself to the cemetery.

He wanted to crawl into the earth to apologize to his beloved Annie and James. Brandon had also learned that he had three younger children whom he had never heard of before. And it was the hope that he would get to see their faces that allowed him to stand without falling apart.

The people who recognized Brandon frowned at him and gossiped among themselves as he kissed the gravestones with tears in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Annie! I'm so sorry, James!" Brandon wept like a child, barely breathing, while others watched him with anger and a hint of disgust.

Suddenly, Brandon felt the tenderness of three little arms and voices comforting him.

"Hey, it's okay! It's okay!"

"Don't cry, sir. People are saying they're in a better place."

"You've said sorry, so they're not mad at you anymore! You can stop crying now, sir."

The mourners watched speechless as the children hugged and consoled the man as if they knew he was their father through some divine instinct.

From that day onwards, Brandon worked single-mindedly on improving his life and showing up for his children. Two months after Annie and James were laid to rest, Brandon won custody of Judie, John, and Julia.

He never took his second chance at family for granted. The man got a stable job, worked tirelessly to earn better, and tried to be an uplifting presence in the children's lives. Brandon lived the rest of his life loving the kids and providing for them, knowing they were all that was left of his beloved Annie.

What can we learn from this story?

• Your family is your greatest source of love; don't neglect it. Brandon made the mistake of neglecting his wife and son and lost out on a lifetime of joy with them.
• Children have the purest hearts. When everybody else refused to walk up to Brandon and console him over the loss of his wife and son, it was Judie, John, and Julia who hugged and consoled him.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might this one about a man who raises his sister's children with all his love and sees their biological father show up on an important day in their lives.

This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers 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. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.