Pennies, Nickels And Dimes
A young man is renting a small house inside a small lot with vegetables planted around the house. The man is a scavenger since he was five, adopted by an old lady who turned blind in her later years. The man, while still young, had his chance of going to school with the help of the old lady and earning a college degree two years later after the lady died.
The lady was once asked by the young boy when he was five, "Why are you living just by yourself?"
The lady replied, "When I was five just like you, I was adopted by a couple with no child. They loved me, but I was sold later to a family I never knew. I stayed in a house, in this very same neighborhood where we are residing right now. I was raped by different men and they injected me several times with something. They dropped me in a vacant lot, believing I am already dead. People of this community saved my life and brought me to the nearest hospital. I recovered, but my eye sight deteriorated. I was informed by the doctors who treated me that it is the effect of what was injected in my body. In the future, I might totally lose my vision. The day I saw you, I saw myself in you. I adopted you, wishing I can save your life to live a happy and better future. I succeeded because you're growing up beside me -- helping yourself."
On the young man's graduation day in college where the old blind lady is no longer present in the rented house, he found thirty pieces of bond paper with messages scribbled by the old lady's own hands. These letters were addressed to the young man. It reads,
"I've seen how beautiful the world is. I also felt the love I needed as a child. Until darkness came into my life and never saw the beauty of the world again. I lived in years of grief for losing my sight, for trusting other people too much. But before I lost my sight, I saw myself in you and you gave me a better reason to go on with my life... All the years you stayed with me, you gave me the happiness I never felt from anybody. Before losing my sight, we were both scavenging in streets and everywhere and we are using the pennies, nickels and dimes we saved each day so you can go to school. And you know what?!... Each wealthy family inside the subdivision, people residing behind the concrete walls separating this small house and lot where we live in... they are giving me three kinds of coins each week to support your schooling. All Christmas days and other special occasions, people are knocking at our door giving me a small gift. I am already blind when you started your schooling in high school. I can't see everything I receive from all charitable people around me, but I can sense all the small coins and pieces of metals they're giving me. On the day I die, you will find them inside a barrel where you are sitting right now. The same barrel we sit on everytime we dine on the same small table. People know everything about my life because I was a scavenger too. They were surprised when I adopted you, knowing that I'll be blind very soon despite the free check-ups they're extending unto me. Most of the time you are in school. You will never know everything what good people around us are doing for me and you. All the years I am blind, people are giving me something while you're helping yourself succeed in your life... There are seven barrels inside this house. Use them for your future and help other people in need even when you already have a regular job. Do what you believe is good and helpful to others!"
The six barrels stored inside the small house has a small hole on top, big enough to insert even a half-dollar coin. The young man opened the six barrels -- two barrels of pennies, two barrels of nickels and two barrels of dimes. He scooped the top portion of each opened barrel and laid a handful of three different coins on the floor. He was astounded because with the coins are some precious metals. Coins of pennies with yellow gold rings; nickels and dimes with platinum rings. The seventh barrel is the barrel where the young man is seated while reading the old lady's letters to him.
The old lady's last letter reads, "I want you to keep this small house and lot because very soon this small house will be demolished. If you can do better with your job by the time I'm already gone, save this little place where you started your small dream with me!"
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