While everyone ignored the poor old woman, a young boy decided to help her by carrying groceries. A few days later, his mother was surprised to receive a reward for this generous act.
In a small town in Oklahoma, people often went about their business without paying attention to each other. This was the norm for almost everyone, until one day an eleven-year-old boy named Tom decided to change that.
While all his friends were playing baseball after school, Tom spent his time in the library. He liked to read quietly because he liked to learn about the different morals he could find in books. That week he was reading Good People Everywhere by Linea Gillen.
This book teaches children to be caring, kind and grateful to everyone around them. It shows how people are good because they do things that make everyone’s life easier, such as caring for others, building other people’s homes and delivering babies.
On his way home from the library, he walked past the local grocery shop where he saw an elderly woman struggling to carry shopping bags. The woman was swaying from side to side as she walked.
Several people walked past her and, although they noticed her predicament, did not stop to help her. Tom decided to run up to her and take the bags from her hands. “Let me walk you out,” he said to the old woman.
The woman, Linda, was so grateful to the boy that she was on the verge of tears. “Oh, my dear. You are a godsend. Thank you, my little boy,” she said.
Tom smiled at her and offered his hand to guide her. She held out her hand to him and they walked side by side as Tom carried the bags.
Linda was preparing dinner that evening when she saw a homeless beggar outside the window. He was standing on the side of the road, thin and hungry.
She suddenly remembered the young man who had helped her earlier in the day. A sudden thought crossed her mind and she went to her front door. “Would you like to have dinner?” – she asked, approaching the man.
The man was surprised that someone had spoken to him. He smiled at her and nodded in response to her request. “Thank you, madam. I haven’t eaten in days. Thank you very much.”
Linda set up another seat at the table for her guest. The man, who introduced himself as James, ate half of what was on his plate for dinner, and wanted to save the other half for breakfast.
“Don’t worry. You still have enough food for breakfast. Go and finish your dinner,” Linda told the man. He smiled again, grateful for the old woman’s generosity.
The next day, James was sitting outside eating breakfast when a man in a business suit walked past him. Moments later, he noticed that the man’s wallet had fallen out of his pocket as he turned onto the pavement.
He picked it up and was surprised to see that the wallet was full of hundred dollar bills. With that money, he could rent a room for a few nights and buy food for a few weeks, James thought.
However, he remembered the old woman who had helped him the day before. He saw the receding figure of a man and decided to run after him. He caught up with the man and returned his wallet.
“You dropped your wallet, sir,” he said, handing it back. Surprised, the man in the suit was grateful, as he was on his way to the hospital to pay for his sick mother’s treatment.
He handed James the money and introduced himself as Richard. Although James hesitated at first, he accepted the money graciously. “Thank you for your honesty. Bless you,” Richard said to James before he left.
Richard was able to pay for his mother’s treatment and took her home the same day to make a full recovery under his care.
A few days later, Richard, who owned a construction company, began looking for land to build new luxury homes. On the outskirts of town he saw the mother and her 11-year-old son Tom. They were living in a small caravan.
“Tom, where are you going?” Richard heard the mother ask her son.
“I’m going to the library, Mother. There’s so little space here that I can’t take books home. I’ll just read there, if you don’t mind,” he replied.
His mother felt embarrassed that she could not support her son’s love of reading by setting up a small reading corner at home. A caravan was all they could afford.
Hearing this conversation, Richard suddenly remembered his own childhood. His mother was also poor, and although he loved to read, he had no books because they had no money to buy them.
Richard approached Tom and his mother, introducing himself as a businessman working on a nearby project. After talking to them, he found out that they were living in the caravan because it was the only property they had.
Richard began to visit the neighbourhood frequently. A few blocks from where the trailer was parked, he was building a new luxury house, which he planned to put up for sale. He began visiting Tom and his mother, talking to them about various things.
“What do you want to be when you grow up, Tom?” – he asked the boy during one of his visits.
“I’d like to be a veterinarian. I like reading books about animals, so I go to the library to read some of them,” Tom told him.
On hearing that Tom would like a larger room with a reading corner, Richard decided to give them a new home as he was able.
The next day he came to the caravan and told Tom and his mother to leave. Tom’s mother was furious. “Is that why you approached us? To chase us away from our caravan? How could you? Tom loved you very much,” she said.
Richard shook his head. “You must leave this place to find a new home,” he told them. “Come with me, please. I’ll show you,” he said.
The rich man took Tom and his mother for a ride. He took them to another part of town and stopped outside a large house. “This is yours,” Richard said, holding out the key to Tom’s mother.
“Are you serious?” – she asked him. Richard nodded.
“You see, I build houses for a living, but I could never part with this house because it belonged to my mother. People offered me $265,000 for it, but I couldn’t sell it. I didn’t want to live there, but I wanted to keep it for something special,” he said.
Tom and his mother cried. They were grateful and happy for the opportunity and couldn’t understand why God had suddenly blessed them with such a gift. “We didn’t do anything to deserve it,” Tom’s mother whispered.
They did not know that it all started with a simple good deed by Tom. Every good deed matters and people are encouraged to spread it to others.
