‘Dad?’ Boy Finds His Soldier Father Sleeping on Street, ‘Who Are You?’ Man Responds – Story of the Day

A boy goes to a basketball tournament in a neighboring town and accidentally runs into his soldier dad, who had mysteriously disappeared a decade ago. When his amnesiac father doesn't recognize him, the boy takes drastic measures to help him regain his memory.

Donna sat in her cottage, worrying as the storm raged outside. Her grandson Jamie hadn't returned from the basketball game yet. Suddenly, the power went out, heightening her anxiety.

But just as she lit a candle at the altar, the cottage door burst open. Jamie came in, wet from the rain, with someone Donna didn't expect — Keith, her son-in-law who had disappeared 10 years ago...

Donna was shocked. "Keith?? Oh, dear! Where have you been?"

But Keith looked confused and didn't recognize her.

"Jamie, what's going on?" Donna panicked.

"I don't know, Grandma. I saw him sleeping on the street...in this state," Jamie recounted. "I approached him and called him 'Dad?' ... but he looked at me and asked 'Who are you?' which completely shook me. He doesn't recognize us anymore."

What had happened to Keith?

The family had an awkward dinner that evening. After the meal, Keith thanked Jamie and Donna but still seemed distant.

Then, in the middle of the night, Keith's screams woke them up. He seemed scared and confused. They managed to console him that he was safe, and Keith fell asleep again, but Jamie wanted to know why his father was behaving so strangely.

"Was Dad always like this, Grandma?"

"Keith was a different person when your mother first met him, Jamie," Donna said with a heavy heart as she recounted the past.

Ten years ago…

Keith, a soldier, visited his hometown cemetery on Memorial Day to pay tribute to the fallen heroes who had given their all to their country. There, he saw a woman and a boy cleaning graves.

When he headed to the other cemetery nearby, where his dad was laid to rest, he saw the woman and the kid again, cleaning the overgrown graves and lighting candles on each of them.

"You...again?" the woman rose. "Are you stalking me or something, sir?"

"What? No, no!" Keith said. "That's my Dad's grave you're cleaning!"

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I was just...I..."

"It's alright. May I?" Keith placed the wreath on the tombstone and stood silently for a minute, paying tribute to his late father.

"I'm Evelyn," the lady said. "And this is my son, Jamie," she pointed at her 6-year-old chasing butterflies.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to offend you," she said as they walked on the sidewalk. "I do this every year. I go around and clean the forgotten graves of people whenever I get the time. I love the silence of the graves."

Keith smiled but thought it was a weird passion for a young, beautiful woman like Evelyn.

As they walked together, he asked her about Jamie's dad and learned the man had died in an accident years ago.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to..." Keith shared his condolences and offered to help her with her mission of cleaning forgotten graves.

Evelyn was surprised because nobody had offered to help her with her 'weird' passion. They began meeting every Tuesday and Thursday, and as days passed, Keith started falling for Evelyn.

But Evelyn didn't show up one day, so Keith went to her house. There, he met Donna, who told him Evelyn was in the hospital. Evelyn revealed to Keith she was dying of cancer. Keith was heartbroken and decided to propose to her, although she only had a few months to live.

But when he returned with a ring the next day, he found out Evelyn had been discharged. He rushed to her home, only to learn that she'd left for the airport with Jamie and Donna.

Keith rushed there, trying to stop Evelyn from leaving. He even bought a ticket to get through security and found her. He begged her to stay, but Evelyn said it was impossible because she was dying.

"Keith, I can't love you...and you know why. I don't want to ruin your life by giving you false hopes and dying one day," she said. "I hope you forgive me for this."

Keith watched in disbelief as Evelyn and her family disappeared into the distance to board their flight. His voice cracked, and his throat choked up. "I'll do anything to be with you...please come back!" He dropped to his knees. But she didn't stop. Heartbroken, Keith left immediately.

But when he arrived home, he was surprised to find Evelyn there. She hugged him tightly and said, "I couldn't take that flight, Keith. Not after breaking your heart. I want to be with you."

They eventually got married and spent happy months together before Keith had to leave for duty to a foreign land. Evelyn's cancer had gone into remission, so they both thought only sunny days awaited them.

But when he returned, Evelyn was not there to hug and kiss him. She had died.

"...The autopsy report revealed she'd died due to severe blood loss after falling down the house steps," Donna finished recounting. "We were not home, Jamie. I had taken you to the park."

"What about Dad? How did he end up forgetting us…and Mom?"

"I don't know, dear. Keith stayed with us for some time after your mother died. He didn't return to the Army. And then… he just vanished from our lives. He never contacted us, and I never saw him again… until today."

Worried, Jamie and Donna took Keith to the hospital the next day, where the doctor diagnosed Keith with amnesia.

"Will he not remember anything then, doctor?" Jamie worried.

"We can't be sure. But it may take time. We'll try our best to provide him with the necessary care and support to help him regain his memory."

Then one night, when Jamie headed to Keith's room to say goodnight, he found his father missing. He and Donna searched the whole house, but Keith was nowhere to be found.

Asking Donna to stay home, Jamie bolted into the night to look for his father. Soon, he arrived in a dark alley two miles away and saw his father standing alone, staring at a graffiti-covered wall.

"Dad? What are you doing here?"

"I-I know this place," Keith mumbled. "It keeps coming back in my dreams."

"Dad, do you remember more about those dreams? Anything at all?"

"No. But it's like trying to catch smoke with bare hands. It gives me a terrible headache whenever I get those dreams. They're nightmares."

"Let's go home, Dad. You must rest." Jamie took Keith home.

As days passed, Keith's recurring nightmares began to take a toll on Donna and Jamie. He started shouting, "Stop! Don't do this!" in his sleep every other night.

When Jamie could no longer watch his father struggling, he hatched a daring plan to connect the dots of his father's fractured memory.

The following night, Jamie approached Keith in his room. "Dad, I was thinking about going on a little walk in that alley. Will you come with me?"

"No, I'm not going there. It's dangerous."

"Dad, trust me. It's not as dangerous as you think. Maybe something will jog your memory," Jamie reassured him.

Keith agreed. As they arrived in the alley, Jamie staged an act with his friend, recreating the mysterious events from his father's dreams.

"Dad, help me! He's hitting me on my head...Dad!" Jamie cried out as his friend, wearing a creepy mask, faked a hard blow to his head.

Keith, seeing this, rushed to save his son. Jamie's friend fled the scene as a part of their plan.

"Jamie, get up...Jamie!" Keith cried, getting into emotional combat when he saw his son's head covered in a fake red liquid.

Unable to withstand the shock, Keith collapsed to the ground and passed out. Jamie and Donna rushed him to the hospital, where Keith recognized Jamie. Some part of his memory had returned.

"Evelyn was pregnant when she died! And…"

Keith recalled that after Evelyn's loss, he started drinking a lot and became very sad. One day, he noticed Evelyn's special locket was missing and thought someone might have stolen it and hurt her for it. Evie never took that locket off... but it wasn't on her when I saw her in the ambulance.

He rushed to the police station, where his suspicion grew stronger after cross-checking the picture of Evelyn's dead body—the diamond locket with the designer watch inside was indeed missing. It wasn't in her things at home, either.

In the end, Keith asked his friend, Detective Roger, for help. Detective Roger agreed, and a few days later, they found out the locket was sold at a pawn shop. "A man sold this locket for five thousand dollars a few days ago," the pawnshop owner confessed.

"Did he come again? Do you know his name?" Keith asked.

"I'm afraid not."

"If that guy comes back to sell something else, you contact us, do you hear me?" he warned the pawnshop owner.

Later, the pawn shop owner called Keith, saying the man who sold the locket was back. Keith hurried to the pawn shop that evening. A frantic chase ensued as he bolted after the mystery man through the winding streets.

The man said he had just wanted the locket, and when Evelyn tried to call the police, he accidentally hurt her. But before Keith could get all his answers, someone struck him on the back of his head, and he fell unconscious.

"I woke up in this hospital, Jamie... I had no memory of who I was."

***

Now, years later, Keith went back to the pawn shop with Jamie to find out more. Surprisingly, the pawnshop owner remembered him. Keith noticed the man looked older and more frail.

"I know it's been ten years. But did that man I asked about visit again?" Keith asked.

"You or that guy never showed up after that. But yes, I think he said he needed money for his wife's treatment in the hospital nearby. As far as I know, there's only one hospital nearby... about 10 minutes away."

Keith and Jamie exchanged a glance. This was their first lead.

***

Arriving at the hospital, Keith rushed to a doctor.

"Doctor, there was a man whose wife was dying. Sh-She was admitted to this hospital ten years ago. He was probably poor. But he'd do anything to save her. I know what I'm asking sounds crazy, but do you remember any such case?"

The doctor thought for a while. "From 10 years ago... well, I can't recall... Oh, wait… I remember a peculiar case like that," he said, raising a brow. "His wife was suffering from a heart condition and needed urgent surgery. He made a scene at the hospital. But why do you ask?"

"I need his address, please…" Keith pleaded, explaining his story.

The doctor made an exception despite the hospital policy against sharing patient details.

"I shouldn't be doing this…" he said, "but here's the address since you said it's important."

Keith and Jamie rushed to the address where they met the man Scott's ex-wife, Sarah, and little daughter.

"Sarah, we need answers. Tell us about this locket," Keith firmly held a picture of Evelyn wearing the diamond locket. "It was my wife's...the same woman your husband stole it from and... killed," Keith broke down.

"Scott wasn't a thief at heart... he did it to save me! He was going to quit the life of crime..."

After talking to Sarah, Keith realized Scott had died on the night he had chased him. It was an accident.

Sarah gave Keith the locket back, saying Scott never got the chance to change. "This locket was found in his clothes... the ones he'd been wearing the night he died. A distant uncle paid for my treatment, and I lived."

Keith and Jamie decided not to blame Sarah and her daughter for Scott's actions. They were satisfied with the fact that they had closure about Evelyn's death.

The next day, they visited Evelyn's grave and cleaned forgotten graves together, remembering Evelyn's love for such acts.

"Evie would have loved this. She had a heart for these forgotten souls," Keith teared up as he remembered his late wife.

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