Rich Brother Mocks Poor Sister for Sheltering Old Lady until He Learns about Her Inheritance — Story of the Day

Susan was kind, but in her brother's eyes, she was an emotional fool who had sheltered a stranger with a sob story. He mocked her until a lawyer showed up at Susan's house a few days after the old woman died.

Bill and Susan were siblings who lived in two different worlds.

Bill was 32, and his construction business had made him enough money to have the biggest house on the block and two cars in the garage. The man lived alone, but he saw it as a life free from the stress and emotional drama of having a family.

And there was nothing Bill loved to mock more than emotionally gullible people. "Like my very own sister!" he would think.

Susan was 28, had three little kids, and could only afford a small, old house on the same block. The three children were her stepchildren from her husband Dave's first marriage.

When Dave tragically died in an accident, Susan was determined to raise them to be fine young people. She wanted them to have a comfortable life, even if she had to work round the clock for it. And she did work - all day, every day.

Had she not married that poor sweet man or been the sole caretaker of the children, Susan would have made a name for herself, too. But she had nothing to complain about because, in her eyes, children were always a godsend, a belief that her brother ridiculed.

"Is it true? Is this her lawyer?" Bill gasped for breath as he came running to his sister's house.

One day, Susan was returning from a trip to the grocery store when she saw a stranger that made her heart sink.

It was an old woman sitting on a bench outside the store, arms wrapped around her body, lips quivering uncontrollably in the cold. The woman was swaying back and forth, trying to keep herself warm despite not having enough warm clothing.

The strange old woman was waiting for no one, was asking for nothing, and her face was ridden with winter rashes and a lack of hope.

"It's chilly today," Susan leaned close to the older woman's ear and said in a gentle voice. "Here, wear this jacket, and let me get you a coffee in the meantime."

The woman was confused but grabbed the jacket and couldn't wait to get it on. "People still help strangers in this day and age?" she wondered as she watched Susan bring her a coffee from the nearby kiosk.

As the poor woman drank each sip of coffee with a sigh of relief, Susan sat beside her, wanting to give her company.

"Is there somewhere you can go back to?" she asked the woman.

"Yes, but I won't go there even if it kills me!" the poor woman's voice suddenly got loud and angry.

The older woman, Anne, revealed that she was on the run from a depressing old nursing home that her grown sons forced her to live at.

"They tricked me into signing some papers one day. And a week later, I learned that they had sold the house – MY house – and distributed the money among themselves. Those heartless creatures! They packed a bag and drove me to the nursing home, trying to emotionally blackmail me into living in that dump!"

Susan offered the woman a tissue to wipe her warm tears.

"I took all the strength my knees had and ran away, promising myself to never look back. Neither at the nursing home nor at the children!"

Susan continued to hear Anne out and realized she didn't have anywhere else to go. After giving it a brief thought, Susan interrupted the old woman's emotional rant.

"Listen, why don't you come to stay with me? I have a humble home a short walk away from here. I've got three adorable children who would love to know a grandmother like you…I know this sounds strange, but think about it for a moment," she urged Anne.

Anne frowned as she gave it a thought and said, "You seem like a kind woman, and I know your children can't be any different…but how long can I—"

"You can stay as long as you like, Anne. But at least until you recover from that terrible rash…" Susan held the woman's hands.

Susan brought Anne home, and an unspoken warmth was floating between the walls with Anne's presence.

Anne was great with the children. They couldn't stop fussing over her, begging her to narrate another fascinating story and teach them another of her childhood games.

And Anne was always happy to oblige. Her childlike joy and hope had returned to her heart, and her life was starting to feel whole again.

A few days turned to a few weeks, and nobody remembered Anne as a stranger who could leave anytime. Nobody except Bill.

"So you're still playing god with that raggedy old woman, eh, Susan?" Bill would mock and laugh.

"Why do you even care about that old nag? You're young and she's just a bag of bones. A bag of bones who wants to get stuff for free!" Bill would try to shake the kindness out of Susan.

"Have some respect, Bill. She's welcome here. She was dumped by her children and needs a family!"

"You'll never learn!" Bill would say and storm out of the house.

He never understood the kindness of his sister's heart, why she married that poor man years ago, why she continued to take care of the kids that were technically not hers, or why she would take on the additional burden of sheltering an old woman she barely knew.

And when he heard Anne died, he didn't understand why Susan's tears wouldn't stop.

"This is a relief, I'm telling you. She was an old woman with a sob story, and you still gave more than she deserved. Oh, the room still smells of her cheap hair oil. Now you'll have to air the room for a few months!"

Susan didn't say a word but looked Bill dead in the eye, letting him know that he should stop talking right away or leave.

Like always, Bill left instead of being by his sister's side and didn't return until he had heard a shocking rumor.

"Is it true? Is this her lawyer?" Bill gasped for breath as he came running to his sister's house.

"Yes, I am Mrs. Maine's lawyer. She rewrote her will a few weeks back. The sweet woman had no property left, but she had an old bank account with some money. She has left it all to Ms. Susan here…" he said, smiling politely at the brother and sister on his way out.

"How much money?" Bill nudged his sister to reveal the amount. "A thousand dollars? Five? TEN?"

Bill's anxiety kept rising as Susan kept him guessing.

She finally showed him the document. In it was a check for $100,000.

That money meant everything to Susan. It meant she could finally renovate the children's room. It meant she could finally hire a nanny permanently and maybe rent a car.

It turns out that Anne had initially left the money to be distributed between her sons. But after knowing what real family felt like in Susan's home, she got the will changed.

Anne's sons were as shocked as Bill, who watched as Susan did everything she said she would do with that money and noticed her life improving.

The kids' new room was beautiful and bright, and in the center of one of the walls was a framed portrait of Anne, the woman who had changed their lives with her presence.

What can we learn from this story?

• Don't judge people by their appearance. Bill thought Anne was just a raggedy old woman with nothing, but he was shocked to learn how much money she had left for Susan.
• Be kind even when you don't have a lot. Susan struggled to raise her stepchildren, but that didn't stop her from helping Anne when she had nowhere else to go.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about another kind soul who helped an elderly woman by offering up a seat for her when no one else would, unknowingly starting a new chapter in their lives.

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