Slowly this time, I reread the e-mail on my phone. “We’re going to be evicted from our apartment unless we can come up with $1,000 in four hours. If there’s any way you could help, we’d be so grateful.” Teresa, a woman I’d never met, had sent it to me in New Jersey—from Maryland. She’d lost her legs in an auto accident. Every day was a struggle for her and her husband. It broke my heart.
It was 2017 and I’d told a few friends I wanted to do something good for people in need, to feel as if I was making a difference in this world. Word had spread, and thus this e-mail. But it was too much. One thousand dollars? In a single afternoon. It might as well have been a million dollars.
I was barely getting by myself. A 30-year-old single mom, raising a seven-year-old son with nonverbal autism. Laid off from my job. That’s why Teresa’s plea hit me so hard. I knew what it was like to feel helpless, unable to afford even the most basic necessities. Nowhere to turn. The walls closing in. I’d been there only a year before.
King, my sweet, beautiful baby, wouldn’t eat, not without a lot of coaxing, at least. There was something wrong. He wasn’t talking, not even to say mama. No babbling. He seemed barely aware of the world around him. But the doctors wouldn’t commit to a diagnosis. “Some children are slow in developing,” was all they could tell me.
Denne historien er fra Jan/Feb 2021-utgaven av Angels on Earth.
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Denne historien er fra Jan/Feb 2021-utgaven av Angels on Earth.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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THE ANSWER
Could my husband’s recent retirement explain his behavior?
Sewing Hope
It wasn’t in my power to mend a broken heart, but I sent needle and thread, with chocolates for good measure
Problems? She Can Relate
Meet New Jersey’s Own Black Fairy Godmother
Valentine Angels
Straight from heaven—with love
The Humility Sisters
What would two nuns know about taking care of a baby?
Sophie's Secret
How could a dog know just what so many people needed?
Built by Angels
My mother called to ask if I knew the story of the 11 churches carved from single stones in Ethiopia
ONE RED GLOVE
Its message helped me shake the blues
Clutter, Be Gone!
Fifteen minutes a day keeps the mess away
A housewarming gift
My husband seemed to be in every room— even though I knew he was in heaven