“I have no feelings for them unless it’s a healthy disdain.”
But the lawyer’s call kept nagging at Brendan, tugging at his conscience. “I’m sixty years old and I owe then nothing!” he told Susan. “So why do I feel like this?”
“Because you’re a good man,” Susan told him gently.
“And good men do the right thing…”
So two weeks later, Brendan and Susan drove down to the old age home where Margaret and Rafe now resided. The long-haired, lithe, and handsome flower children they had once been were long gone. They were old and they didn’t age gracefully.
When a carer had announced a visit from their son, the two had been stunned. Then Margaret got to her feet and moved towards Brendan, her arms open. “Brendan, my baby!” she sobbed, but there were no tears in her small bright eyes.
Brendan evaded her embrace easily. “Hello mother,” he said. “I’m surprised you remember me, I certainly wouldn’t have recognized you at all.”
Rafe smiled, showing that most of his teeth were gone.
“Now, my boy, let’s not dwell on the past…” he said. “We’re so happy to see you! Life hasn’t been easy…We are not who we used to be…”
“Please, my son,” Margaret whispered.
“Don’t abandon us!”
“Abandon you?” asked Brendan. “You mean to do to you as you did to me?”
“We left you the money!” cried Rafe. “You weren’t poor, as we are now!”
“You didn’t leave me the money,” Brendan said calmly.
“That trust fund was set up automatically by grandfather’s estate the moment I was born. You had nothing to do with it. “But you know what?
I won’t abandon you, not because you deserve better, but because I’m a better person than either of you. I know what love is, and compassion. I forgive you, even if you don’t deserve forgiveness, and I will help you.
You can have the money!”
Rafe looked at Brendan with tears in his eyes. “We are so alone, my son, so alone…What can the money buy us now? More lonely days?
Please…”
Brendan nodded. “So now you understand what I felt,” he said. “I was a child, and all I wanted was to be loved and cherished.
Do you think that money was any consolation? Now you’re old, and you too want to be loved, to be with family. “It’s OK, I’ll take you home with me, father, mother.
You won’t die alone.”
Brendan took Margaret and Rafe home with him and hired a carer for them. Margaret loved talking to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren and telling them stories about their crazy days in the sixties and playing guitar with Bob Dylan at a campfire. Rafe would sit next to Brendan whenever he could and hold his hand in his frail claw.
Brendan donated the huge fortune which had accumulated in his trust fund to the orphanage that had raised him and shown him what love and caring were. What can we learn from this story? Money is no substitute for love.
Brendan’s parents abandoned him and left him plenty of money, but gave him no love and tenderness. Bitterness is a poison and forgiveness is the only antidote. Brendan carried the resentment towards his parents in his heart until he finally forgave them.
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