It was early in the morning, a soft wind blew outside the hospital waiting room. Everyone gathered around in silence, waiting for news on the old man in room 231. He was their friend, father, brother, uncle, grandfather, etc. But that’s not why everyone was there, sitting in utter silence, waiting for news on the terminally ill man. He was rich. Rich beyond measure, he owned multiple million dollar companies, extravagant estates, and could buy anything you could ever want. Despite all his wealth he was a humble man, who worked until he could no longer, when he got his diagnosis. He has stage 4 kidney failure and was only given a few months to live. In this time his friends and family showered him with kindness, and he spent every waking moment with them, enjoying his final days.

While he lived his family didn’t visit often. They were busy people, too caught up in trivial things. But as soon as they heard the news of his diagnosis, they rushed to become his favorite. The old man was no idiot though, he knew what they all wanted so much, not him but his money. It pained him that no one could love him for himself, he was kind and caring but it seemed all anyone thought of when they looked at him was dollar bills.

A week before this morning he went for a stroll down to the town. He was dressed in modest cloths and carried a beat up wooden cane. He decided to stop by a coffee shop and sat at a table, alone. When he received his coffee noticed a bright young girl looking at him fondly. She wore a tattered and dirty dress and shoes will holes in the toe. He smiled back at the young girl and took a sip of his coffee. She soon walked over to him and sat in the chair across from him. She told him her name was Audrey and she asked him for his name. He gave it to her and they chatted for quite some time until her mother, a thin woman with tired eyes, called her so they could go. She told him she hoped to see him again sometime and disappeared out the door.

When he arrived back at the hospital he decided to write a note, a change to the will. His family was wealthy, not as rich as him but well off. When he saw the little girl in the coffee shop, her humble attire yet kind and charming attitude, it made him realize that it was her who deserved it most of all.

So he wrote her into the will and handed the nurse the note and requested she read it to them when he passed. And so, that day had come, but somehow, in the week following him giving her the note, she lost it. She searched and searched but couldn’t find it anywhere. So she decided not to say anything to anyone about it, praying she was the only one who knew about the note. And so when the will was read everything was divided equally among the family. Audrey was not left in poverty though, for she never forgot the old man and his kindness, and decided to become a nurse, to help those who needed it most.

Though she never received what should have been hers, all was well as the family lost most of the money when a stock they had placed most of it in crashed, karma for their selfishness.