A few weeks back I watched the movie “The Blind Side” with Sandra Bullock. Even though I’d seen the movie before it still tugs on my heartstrings.
If you haven’t seen the movie, you need to. I’ll brief you a little without giving anything away, for the sake of this column. The movie is about a wealthy family in Memphis, Tenn., who take in a young boy that has no family and nowhere to go. It is based on a true story, which makes it even more heartwarming.
As I watched the movie I couldn’t help but think about all the families who take in children without actually fostering or adopting them. They provide them with food, shelter and sometimes even with clothes and never see the benefits from the government. They do it out of love, as is the case in this movie.
This movie made me think of my own mother.
When I was a junior in high school I had a friend (let’s call him Charles), who got himself into trouble at a very young age. He wasn’t a bad kid by any means; he was just misguided and needed some direction and stability in his life.
Charles dropped out of high school and started running with the wrong crowd. Charles soon ended up in the county jail. When he got out of jail 11 months later, he was shunned by his family, had no job and no place to live. That’s when I got a phone call from Charles.
All he owned was some clothes, a cd player and his pickup. When he had called me, he had sold his cd player to buy some gas and planned on spending the night at a gas station sleeping in his truck.
I couldn’t let this happen. I called my mother to ask if Charles could spend the night on the couch. She agreed, because she couldn’t stand the thought of him having nowhere to go, either.
One night turned into a year and a half. Charles had very well become part of the family.
My mom helped Charles find and keep a job, get his finances in order to payoff his debt from jail but most importantly she had given him the guidance and love he needed.
Today, Charles has a good job, loving wife, two ornery sons and a beautiful baby girl on the way.
Who knows where Charles would have ended up if it wasn’t for the love and generosity of my mother.
Best wishes,
