I always thought I knew everything about my mom. At 65, she was the rock of our family, but all that changed the night I unknowingly hopped into the back seat of a taxi she was driving.
It was one of those moments that makes you question everything.
Seeing her behind the wheel, wearing a driver’s cap like she’d been doing it for years, threw me for a loop. I had no idea what was coming next, but I knew one thing for sure.
I.
Needed. Answers.
Life was going well for me.
At 35, I had a stable job, good friends, and a comfortable apartment in the city. My mom, Ellen, lived nearby, and we talked regularly.
Everything in my world felt predictable until that night.
It was a Tuesday, and my coworker Jake and I had just wrapped up dinner at a local diner. We’d both had a long day at work and were joking around as we waited outside for the taxi he’d called.
“Man, I can’t wait to crash on my couch,” Jake said, rubbing his neck. “Today was brutal.”
“No kidding,” I replied.
My car had been acting up for weeks, so I was grateful Jake had ordered the ride.
The cold night air nipped at my face, and I was more focused on warming my hands in my pockets than paying attention to the taxi that pulled up to the curb.
Jake opened the back door, and we slid in, still chuckling about our boss’s terrible attempt at a motivational speech that afternoon. The car smelled faintly of lavender, and I noticed a knitted cushion on the driver’s seat.
For some reason, it felt oddly familiar, but I didn’t think much about it.
Feeling tired, I leaned back and glanced at the rearview mirror. That’s when my eyes met the driver’s eyes, and I immediately recognized them.
The eyes staring back at me weren’t a stranger’s.
They were my mom’s.
“Mom?” I blurted out, my voice louder than I intended.
Jake snapped his head toward me. “Wait… what? That’s your mom?”
I nodded, but my mind was a whirlwind of questions.
My mom?
Driving a taxi? Since when?
Mom’s eyes darted between the road and the rearview mirror. After a few awkward seconds, she let out a nervous laugh.
“Well,” she began.
“I guess the cat’s out of the bag.”
The cat’s out of the bag? I thought.
“What the heck is going on, Mom? Why are you driving a taxi?” I blurted out.
Jake, ever the observant one, gave me a nudge.
“Hey, man,” he said.
“If you need some privacy, I can hop out and catch another ride.”
I shook my head quickly. “No, it’s fine.”
Turning back to my mom, I asked again, more softly this time, “Mom… what’s going on?”
She sighed, gripping the steering wheel tightly. “It’s not what you think, Samuel.
I wasn’t planning on you finding out like this.”
“Well, here we are,” I said, my voice rising again. “How long has this been going on? And why?”
Jake shifted uncomfortably next to me.
“Uh… I’ll just get out here,” he said, already opening the door.
“Catch you later, Sam.”
“Yeah, sure,” I muttered. I was so distracted that I barely registered his departure.
When he was gone, I moved to the front passenger seat, staring at my mom in disbelief.
“Mom, seriously. You’ve never even owned a car, and now you’re driving a taxi?
Start explaining.”
She glanced at me, her face tired but resolute. “Alright. You deserve to know.
But Samuel… please don’t get mad.”
I took a deep breath, steadying my thoughts. “I’m not mad. I’m… confused.
And worried. You’ve never even driven before, Mom! When did this start?
And why?”
Mom started driving again, keeping her eyes on the road.
“I’ve been learning to drive for a few months now,” she said.
“A few months?” I repeated. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to worry,” she said.
I let out a humorless laugh. “Well, mission failed.
I’m worried, Mom. Worrying is basically my full-time job now.”
She glanced at me. “Samuel, listen to me.
It’s about Lily.”
I froze, my heart sinking. “Lily? What about her?”
Lily is my niece, my sister Anna’s 10-year-old daughter.
The brightest spark of joy in our family. Smart, curious, always asking a million questions about the world. But she’d been dealt a cruel hand in life.
A year ago, she was diagnosed with a rare terminal illness, and ever since, it has been like a dark cloud hanging over all of us.
“Mom… what about Lily?” I asked again.
“She told me something a few months ago,” Mom said, her voice thick with emotion.
“She said she wanted to see the world before it was too late.”
“What do you mean… see the world?”
“She wants to see cities, oceans, mountains. She wants to feel the sand under her feet and see the stars from the top of a mountain.” Mom’s voice broke slightly, and she took a shaky breath. “But Anna’s drowning in bills, and you… you’ve got your own life to manage.
I couldn’t ask either of you for more.”
“So, you decided to drive a taxi?” I asked, the incredulity slipping back into my voice. “Mom, this isn’t safe. You’ve never done anything like this before!”
She shook her head.
“I know. But what other choice did I have? Lily doesn’t have much time left.
I had to do something.”
I leaned back in my seat, rubbing my hands over my face.
“Mom, you’re 65. Why not just tell me? We could’ve figured something out together.”
She shook her head.
“You’ve worked so hard to get where you are. I didn’t want you to give up your savings or worry about this. This was something I needed to do.”
I sighed.
“So, what’s the plan?” I asked.
“You’re going to save up enough money and… what? Take Lily on a road trip?”
“Exactly,” Mom nodded. “A road trip.
Just me, Anna, and Lily. We’d see the ocean, the Grand Canyon, the mountains. Wherever she wants to go.”
I shook my head, still trying to process everything.
“And you were going to do all of this… alone?”
“I was going to try,” she said quietly. “For Lily.”
I sat in silence for a moment, the weight of her words settling in. My mom, who had never driven a day in her life, was learning to drive at 65.
She was ready to do everything to make her granddaughter’s dream come true.
The next morning, I called Anna.
“Hey, we need to talk,” I told her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, concerned.
“It’s about Lily… and Mom.”
I explained everything, from the taxi driving to the road trip plan.
There was a long silence on the other end of the line before Anna finally spoke, her voice trembling.
“She did all of this for Lily?”
“Yeah,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. “But we’re not letting her do it alone.”
By the end of that week, we had a plan in place.
We rented a small RV. It wasn’t fancy, but it had everything we needed for a road trip.
Mom would drive, but I’d be there to help navigate.
Anna arranged her work schedule, and we told Lily we had a surprise for her.
When we sat Lily down to tell her, her eyes sparkled with excitement.
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