"The lady beggar." Tales from overseas.
Life is not a bed of roses, nor a bowl of cherries. At times, it takes a brave heart in order to face the hard blows that one has to endure, for life is not easy if one has to roam out there looking for a place to stay and something to eat...
Author´s Notes: After my separation from my child´s father in New York, I had no other choice but to return to my mother´s home in order to provide the best care for my little daughter´s sake. Unfortunately shortly after my arrival, my mom passed away.
I indeed, spent many years abroad teaching American English to foreign learners after my dear mom departure from this world into Eternity. I had to encounter raw experiences trying to survive in the asphalt jungle, so that I had been exposed to seeing unpleasant things in my surroundings as an eyewitness.
Being a long-suffering patient of asthma and allergy, a victim of mental cruelty and a savage, appalling domestic violence with a long history of abuse, and facing the fact of becoming a single parent in New York at a young age, I had to struggle to make ends meet and provide the best care for my only child. I did my best for my beloved ones, I must admit. My dear family left all their belongings and properties to me making our lives a little easier at last.
Then, immortal sores and memories have been left alive in my heart.
My parents and aunts helped me with the upbringing of my only child. So when they grew into an old age, I took care of my dear father and aunts in their illness and elderly years until the Lord called them to His Heavenly final home.
At times, I saw some spiritually dead people bragging about their high morals, but they had done evil deeds for real, instead of proving their honest hearts with good examples of trustworthy Christian lives. We should become the perfect role model to follow with our example of living.
Now, the tale of the lady beggar begins...
This story happened abroad and a few years back within the enchanting world of mystery tales. While I was walking down the street heading for a bookstore, which only sold English books, I noticed a young sorrowful woman sitting at the old Christian Church footsteps. To my surprise as I was passing by, I realized that the lady beggar held a young blonde child in her arms. She also had a big sign by her side asking for help for her children; she had no job, and they were homeless from an impoverished land in Eastern Europe. Her little child was weeping loudly and hugging her mom tightly. "Poverty is so cruel," I thought to myself...
I could not help feeling sorry for the young lady beggar who held her little child in her arms, and I remembered us that we could have ended up in the same way. Their entangled story entwined deep mysteries that we would never know.
Yet, I kept going on my way to the bookstore to buy some books. English had been my bread and butter over the years as an ESL teacher and writer. I had always loved reading and writing with passion.
On my haste, I still found exquisite reading material in that special bookstore. There were thousands of books to choose from. Anyway, I bought just a few ones like short stories, sonnets, poems and some plays. I set out of the store with my hands full and a smile on my face, because I had found what I was looking for. Actually, I would have bought more texts if I had more money on my pockets. My students were pleased with my teaching; so I kept on learning to excel their expectations. I loved to study and I had always been a passionate reader. My book shelves were always crammed with books of all sizes containing themes of general culture, novels, poetry, short stories, essays, dictionaries and all sort of scientific and school material. Moreover, I also kept an old Encyclopedia in my personal library at home just to have all my books handy. I thought that I would have more books than anything else, since reading had always been my real passion.
Later on, I left the store and crossed the road. At first glance, I noticed that the beggars were still there at the footsteps of the old Christian Church. I could not help feeling sorry for them again. They really moved and touched my heart. As I walked by the sorrowful lady beggar, she spoke broken words loudly just like a songbird. The little child was a pretty girl with blonde hair. She was weeping tears from her young heart. I figured that she must have been hungry. So I decided to approach them gently trying to soothe the little girl´s tears and calm her down.
I said hello to them first. Then the little girl glanced at me, and I noticed she had beautiful green eyes. So I asked her mom about her child´s age.
"Three years old", she replied.
Then I exclaimed, "Wow! What happened to you and your family?"
The lady beggar began to tell me her story in brief with a broken foreign accent.
"We are homeless from an impoverished land in Eastern Europe. Our government sent us to this country in South America for working purposes and a good home to live. Unfortunately, my husband died. Our government don´t help us. Now, we have no food, no home and no money to survive. I have two children to support. This one is my three-year-old baby. My other blonde daughter is nine years old, and she is also begging across the street by the bookstore. I can´t send them to School, since we need to beg in the streets all day long for food and shelter. My children will become illiterate. You see lady, we ended up unwillingly as homeless beggars in the streets in a foreign land. There is no justice in this cruel world."
Wow!! I was so astonished at her sad story that I would only thought in giving away all the money that I had left on my pockets. The little girl with beautiful green eyes and blonde hair reached out for the money at once. Her young mother said: "Thank you! You are a well-mannered lady, and God will bless you for your kindness!"
Before I left, I asked for her daughter´s name.
The beggar said, "Hope, her name is Hope."
While I was leaving, I said: "God bless you too! The Lord Jesus, our Savior will soon help you and your children. Trust Him with all your heart! You still have Hope. You are both standing by His Church. He is the only One who will never leave you alone or disappoint you. He will give you strength and show you the way."
Then, I walked away. In fact, I had never been able to clearly understand about the story of their shattered lives. Perhaps, their government must have done a dreadful deal with the local government where they arrived.
I thought to myself, perhaps, they might have been victims of beggar´s trade with foreign countries and other weird, strange things.
Slavery is an international crime, I believe.
Now, I still wonder. The memory of the sorrowful lady beggar with the baby Hope in her arms would never leave my mind...
Unfortunately back at that time, I had seen many other foreign lady beggars from Eastern Europe even holding little blonde babies in their arms, and having a big sign by their side asking for help in the same manner than the first one that I had seen before in the busy streets in a South American land. Some of them were sitting by Church yards, others on the sidewalks or by supermarkets where many people gathered.
One day, I had stopped seeing them in the streets. It looked as if they had vanished into thin air or disappeared from view.
How strange!!...
This true story happened abroad and a few years back within the enchanting world of mystery tales.
Thanks for reading!!
And don´t hesitate!! I shall return sooner or later.
God bless!!
STARRY DAWN.
