A cleaning lady comes for her regular shift at her wealthy employer’s home and is shocked to see her daughter scrubbing the floors. When she finds out the reason behind it, she’s left in tears.
Rachel was a single mother raising her two children, 9-year-old Mia and 3-year-old Jim. To provide for them, she worked two jobs: as a server at a restaurant during the week and as a cleaner at the home of an elderly businessman named Mr. Duncan on weekends.
Whenever she wasn’t home, Rachel left her children in her neighbor Lauren’s care. While Lauren wasn’t the best babysitter as she was always on her phone, tracking her husband’s whereabouts, she lived next door to Rachel and was a good friend, so Rachel trusted her.
Mia, on the other hand, disliked staying at Lauren’s place. She wanted Rachel to be there for her and not Lauren!
“Mommy!” she told Rachel one day. “I want to spend time with you like my friends spend time with their parents!”
Rachel smiled. “Honey, mommy has to work hard for our family so we don’t miss out on anything. Mommy is doing this work for you and Jim. I promise I will make time for you some other day.”
But Mia wasn’t satisfied with Rachel’s answer. She missed Rachel and wanted to spend time with her.
One Sunday morning, Rachel dropped Mia and Jim off at Lauren’s place early. She said she had some things to attend to before heading to Mr. Duncan’s place. That’s when Mia had an idea.
“Honey!” Rachel screamed and raced up to her. “What are you doing here? You don’t need to do this!”
She told Lauren she was heading to a friend’s house but she planned to go to Mr. Duncan’s. She knew his address from Rachel’s address book which Rachel left with her in case she needed to reach her while she was away.
Mia knocked on Mr. Duncan’s door upon arrival. The rich man was surprised when he noticed a small girl standing in his doorway. “Yes? How may I assist you?” he asked sweetly.
Mia grinned. “I’m the daughter of your cleaning lady. She told me she would be late for work and asked me to come and notify you. Can I stay here until she arrives?”
“Oh, sure!” Mr. Duncan responded and invited her inside.
Soon after, Mr. Duncan had to leave as he got an urgent call from his office. “I have a meeting, so please excuse me. I’m going to lock up but you can stay here and wait for your mother. She has the spare keys,” he informed Mia, who smiled and nodded.
Nearly half an hour after Mr. Duncan left, Rachel arrived at his house. She unlocked the door and was surprised to see the house floors were glistening as if they were newly polished. She hung her coat on the rack by the entrance and stepped inside, surprised.
“Did someone already clean here?” she wondered as she entered the living room. There she noticed young Mia scrubbing the floors.
“Honey!” Rachel screamed and raced up to her. “What are you doing here? You don’t need to do this!”
“Mommy!” Mia grinned. “Look, I cleaned the floors so you wouldn’t have to work long hours. Now you can spend more time with me!”
Rachel couldn’t hold back her tears. “Oh, honey!” she exclaimed as she hugged her. “I am truly sorry. You didn’t have to do all of this….”
“I don’t want you to make a lot of money for us, mommy,” Mia said as she hugged her back. “All I want is that you be there for me and spend time with me.”
Rachel felt awful. She knew that she needed to work hard to provide for her family. But that night, she resolved to make time for Mia and Jim no matter how tired she was. She would do anything for them.
After watching the security camera footage, Mr. Duncan had an idea to help Rachel. | Source: Pexels
The following weekend, when Rachel arrived at his house, Mr. Duncan declared he was increasing her salary fivefold. Rachel was in tears. “Thank – thank you, Mr. Duncan. I don’t know what I did to deserve this…” she said gratefully.
“This is your prize for being a dedicated mother to your children,” Mr. Duncan said with a smile. “I hope that’ll help your family.”
Thanks to Mr. Duncan’s generosity, Rachel didn’t have to work multiple jobs to support Mia and Jim. Moreover, she had ample time now to be with her children.
What can we learn from this story?
- Never hesitate to help someone if you have the means to do so. Mr. Duncan was a generous businessman who increased Rachel’s salary fivefold so she would not have to work too much and be able to spend more time with her children.
- While working hard to provide for your children is understandable, make sure you don’t neglect them in the process. Mia longed for Rachel and would go to any length to spend time with her. The little girl went so far as to visit Mr. Duncan’s house alone and clean the floors.
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only.
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