A 31-Year-Old Bachelor Brought His Bedridden 76-Year-Old Neighbor Into His Home – And What He Whispered to Her Every Night Left the Whole Family Weeping
I simply told them, “Susan asked to stay here.”
Greg laughed.
“She’s dying, Sam. She doesn’t know what she’s asking.”
A car slowed as it passed my house.
Someone inside stared toward the porch.
That was how the rumors started.
By evening, half the street seemed to know that I had “taken in” a dying woman.
By the following morning, the story had changed.
According to one neighbor, I was trying to get Susan to change her will.
According to another, I had convinced her that her family had abandoned her.
Someone even told my friend Joel that Susan had already signed her house over to me.
None of it was true.
Joel came over that afternoon carrying groceries.
He dropped the bags on my kitchen counter and stared at me.
“Why on earth are you doing this?”
I opened the refrigerator.
“Doing what?”
“You know what.”
He lowered his voice.
“You’re helping her bathe, cooking for her, waking up every few hours, arguing with relatives, and now people are saying you’re after her money.”
“I don’t care what people say.”
“You should.”
I turned toward him.
“She had nobody.”
Joel’s expression softened.
“That’s not your responsibility.”
I looked down at the carton of soup in my hands.
That sentence stayed with me.
