A poor mother, trying to feed her sick little boy, sings at a subway station in exchange for alms. One day a rich man recognized the words of the song and knelt before her, weeping like a lost lamb finding its mother.
Rachel sat on the subway platform and watched people walking past her. As she watched passengers preparing to board the train, she realized that the next departing subway train was just around the corner. But Rachel didn’t get on the subway in time.
“Mom, I’m hungry and my leg hurts,” came the frail, desperate voice of Dave, her sick six-year-old son, lying in her lap.
Rachel knew she had no money left after she had spent it all on lunch. She put the empty cup in front of her and began to sing a song that was close to her heart…
The people who were distracted by her soft voice didn’t seem to notice her pain. Most were busy with their phones, some were looking for a coin or two to toss into her cup, and others didn’t even bother to look at her.
Rachel didn’t care about their ignorance. She was looking for a handout in exchange for a song she had been humming all her life, the same one she always sang to her young son to put him to bed.
“That song? I’ve heard it before. But who sings it? And how does she know the words?”
“God, please help me get through this hardship. Even if all these people put in one coin each, I would have enough for dinner and medicine for my son,” she thought as she sang.
After a few minutes, Rachel heard coins falling into her cup. She did not smile and raised her eyes painfully to thank the passer-by through her tears.
A few minutes passed as Rachel continued to sing the song over and over again. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first. The train arrived and people began to board, while several others exited the underground wagons, heading towards the main exit en masse.
Rachel paused for a moment to check on her son. “Dave, honey, just a few more minutes. And then you’re going to get out of here, okay?”
Dave sighed heavily. He was hungry and suffering from an injured leg. Two days ago Dave had fallen down during a game. It had happened in the same car park where mother and son usually slept on a pile of old cardboard boxes collected from the rubbish dump.
The train rushed past the platform, bringing Rachel back to reality. She coughed, adjusted her voice and began humming the tune again. But this time, the rich man who had just stepped off the train was eerily attracted by her voice and words. He turned out to be 27-year-old Jeffrey, who somehow realised that he had heard the song before.
“That song? I’ve heard it before. But who sings it? And how does she know the words that only my grandmother, my sister and I knew?” – he wondered, approaching Rachel’s location.
As Jeffrey walked to the voice he heard, tears slowly welled up in his eyes. Rachel was immersed in her tender melody as the man’s large shadow covered her while distracting her.
“My god! Rachel, is that you? Lord, I’m so sorry,” Jeffrey said, crying and falling to his knees. “Please forgive me for doing this to you, sister.”
Rachel’s heart began to beat fast, as if it wanted to escape from her chest, because at that moment all her past pain washed over her.
“My brother? My God, Jeffrey, is that you?” she said.
They looked at each other with tears in their eyes, remembering the mistake that Jeffrey made 18 years ago and which cost Rachel much more than her happiness.
When Jeffrey and Rachel were young, they lost their parents in a car accident. They went to live with their grandmother Alice, who took care of them instead of their parents. She was everything they had.
Whenever Jeffrey and Rachel got depressed thinking about their parents, she would often sing a beautiful song to comfort them. “Sing this song whenever your heart is heavy. And you will feel much better,” she often said, hugging them.
Their family lived happily even though they did not have much money. There were no problems in their “paradise” until the day Alice died of a heart attack. Her loss was unbearable, and the children were sent to an orphanage before they could recover or grieve properly. It was from that moment that Jeffrey decided to start life anew.
A wealthy couple adopted him while Rachel stayed at the orphanage. Nobody wanted to take her because she was limping. They saw only her disability, but not her heart, which yearned for love and tenderness. Rachel was devastated, but she was comforted by Jeffrey’s promise to come back for her. But who would have thought that along with this promise, he would break her heart?
“I promise to come back for you, sister. Stay strong and wait for me. I’ll come and take you with me,” Jeffrey promised (when he was nine years old) before he was painfully separated from his sister. That fateful day was the last time Rachel saw Jeffrey. He never returned for her.
Jeffrey was seduced by a new rich life, and he gradually forgot about his younger sister and the promise he made to her. He thought that someone would adopt her, but fate had something else in store for poor Rachel.
Rachel voluntarily left the orphanage when she turned 18. She fell in love with a man and dreamed of starting a family with him. Rachel was young, beautiful, and madly in love. She trusted him and believed that he would be the best husband and would do everything for her, but she was wrong.
Her dreams were shattered the day her boyfriend left her after finding out she was pregnant. Losing all hope for life, she picked herself up and held on to her baby, feeding on the pain that was inside her.
Poor Rachel couldn’t find a job because no one wanted to hire her without experience. They only saw her disability as a bad excuse not to hire her.
Rachel’s life was accumulating difficulties, but the only reason to smile was the moment when she first picked up her child. She was homeless, but she was determined not to let her child starve. Having plucked up the courage, Rachel went to various metro stations and bus stops every day to sing a song that her grandmother had taught her in exchange for alms.
“…And this is what I did to raise my son,” she cried. Jeffrey’s conscience began to bother him, and he had no answers. A young man who became a wealthy business magnate after heading his adoptive father’s company did the unthinkable while watching passers-by.
“Sis, I’m sorry. I know that word is worthless compared to the hardships you’ve been through. But I promise to make your life better from now on,” he said, hugging Dave tightly. A shaken Rachel stood up, struggling to lean on her cane because of her disability.
Jeffrey put his arm around Rachel’s shoulder and said, “Let’s go home, sis!”
Large drops of hot tears burst from Rachel’s eyes. For the first time in years she shed tears of joy and felt her heart ease as she felt her brother’s warmth.
That day Jeffrey and Rachel were reunited after 18 terrible years apart. As well as putting them up in his luxurious home, Jeffrey paid for his nephew’s medical treatment. He hired a spa therapist to treat his sister and gave her a makeover that erased the ugly emotional scars she had endured all her life.
Today’s world is so competitive, and most people are chasing money. But does that mean it’s easy to forget about your loved ones? Do you think that siblings like Jeffrey and Rachel should put money before their feelings of kinship?
