Losing a child is a pain no parent should ever need to experience. Indeed, the couple in this short story today experienced that pain yet it was thanks to the passing of their child that the father found his family he had no idea existed. This story is inspired by the readers at AmoMama and will have you truly believing that everything happens just the way it should, even if it does not seem that way at first.
An Unnecessary Passing
Meg and Jude had lost their daughter a few years ago. Her death had been one that was completely preventable. She had gone in for surgery to remove her appendix and unfortunately the surgeon performing the operation had worked a double shift and was tired. He made a mistake that cost Meg and Jude their beautiful baby girl’s life.
Jude and Meg spent the first few months both mourning the death of their child while battling a legal case with the hospital. Eventually, justice was served for their baby girl. However, now the couple was left with nothing but their grief and the loss of their young child. Managing this pain was not easy for either of them. Meg withdrew and Jude threw himself into work. Meg stopped working thanks to the sheer depression, and Jude found himself traveling more for work, thanks to a promotion. He was soon to take a work trip for work, a conference in New York City.
A Day in New York
The day for the conference had come, Jude left his wife and went to the airport. He spent the entire day at the conference, which went very well. Jude was exhausted so decided to call the airline and change his flight so he could spend that night resting in his hotel room. He sat in his room and suddenly felt the usual feeling of grief and regret of losing his baby girl. He stood up and decided to take a walk before it got dark, hoping that it would help him to shake the feeling of loss, even if just for a little while.
Jude walked briskly down the street. He approached a corner and noticed a woman pushing a stroller while carrying far too many grocery bags. She was attempting to get the stroller up onto the sidewalk, her groceries falling out in the process. Jude had been a father, he immediately jogged over to assist the woman. He asked her if he could help her and a look of pure relief washed over her face as she accepted Jude’s help.
An Act of Kindness
Jude bent over and lifted the front of the stroller onto the sidewalk. Then, he looked at the baby boy who lay inside and longed for his daughter. He stared a little too long at the baby inside, prompting the woman to ask Jude if he had any children. He replied saying that he once did. But that he had lost his daughter a few years before.
Jude walked with the woman to her door where he helped her to lift the stroller up the steps. He then grabbed a few of the shopping bags and put them on the kitchen table. The woman lifted her son out of the stroller and she thanked Jude for his help and kindness. This is when Jude noticed something incredible, he gasped while staring at the woman and her baby.
A Shocking Discovery
The woman was confused and asked Jude what the matter was. Jude could barely speak. The woman put her baby down and filled u[ a glass of water for Jude, who still had not said a word. Jude glugged the water down and turned to the woman, finally uttering a few words.
He asked her where she had gotten the necklace around her baby’s neck. The woman replied saying that it had been given to her by her mother. Jude was flabbergasted. That very necklace was handmade, and he had buried his own child in it. How was it possible that this woman had the exact same necklace? Jude was too shocked to ask any more questions. He rushed out the door and ran back to his hotel. That night, Jude barely slept a wink, with so many questions running through his mind. The next morning he caught his flight home and burst through the door of his home to find his wife.
A Strange Thing
Jude told his wife about the encounter with the woman. She was shocked because she had been given that very necklace at the age of 18. She had been sent to live in an orphanage as a young girl, and the nuns had given her the pendant when she came of age and left the children’s home. It had belonged to her mother. How could it be that this random woman in New York had the same pendant?
Jude and Meg booked flights back to New York. In his confusion, he had not even gotten the name or number of the woman with the stroller, but he remembered where she lived. Two days later he and his wife stood at the door of this woman and knocked. The woman opened the door and smiled, although a bit confused. Jude asked if they could come inside.
Meg and Sammy exchanged names and got acquainted. Sammy asked them why they were there, and why Jude had left in such a hurry a few days earlier. Meg explained to her about the necklace. She asked to see it.
The Truth
Sammy went to fetch the necklace from the nursery where her baby slept. She handed it to Meg and Jude. It was an exact replica of the necklace she had owned, without a doubt! Meg looked at Sammy and they hugged. Both of them knew what this meant, somehow, they had a connection.
Jude and Meg spent the next day speaking to a private investigator who very quickly found the jeweler who had made the pendant. The pair went off to the store where an old slender man examined the necklace. He looked at both women and told them he remembers making three pendants just like it. They were commissioned by a woman for her three young children, two girls, and a boy. This was the moment Meg and Sammy knew the truth. They were siblings. Their mother had fallen ill and they had been separated at a very young age, all sent to different places. Meg had ended up at the orphanage, while Sammy had ended up adopted. But there was one thing they had to figure out, where their brother had been sent.
Finding Their Brother
In the meantime, Meg and Sammy, who could not believe their fortune started spending time together. They eventually found their brother in a remote city on the other side of the country, and just in time. They found out that they would have lost him if they had just been a couple of days late because he had almost lost his will to live.
He had run away from his adoptive home as a child, and lived on the streets ever since. Meg and Sammy told Peter, their brother, that he no longer needed to live on the streets. He had his family back.
Making a Move
Seeing how happy finding her family had made her, Jude made the choice to move to New York with his wife. Soon she found herself pregnant with a baby boy. She and Jude had finally found happiness once more, all because Jude had chosen to be kind and help a stranger on the street that day.
The lesson we can learn from this story today is that you never know what may happen, always be kind to those in need, and be helpful where you can. Sometimes a small and simple act of kindness can lead to something greater than you could ever imagine.
This story was inspired by an original piece of fiction that first appeared on AmoMama. Any similarities between this story and actual people is purely coincidental.