Ground beans at dawn

A Little Boy's Doll

A very touching story... Please read

A good reminder : "Take time to appreciate what you have now."

On the last day before Christmas, I hurried to go to the supermarket
to buy the remaining of the gifts I didn't manage to buy earlier.

When I saw all the people there, I started to complain to
myself, "It is going to take forever here and I still have so many
other places to go. Christmas really is getting more and more
annoying
every year. How I wish I could just lie down, go to sleep and only
wake up
after it..."

Nonetheless, I made my way to the toy section, and there I
started to curse the prices, wondering if after all kids really play
with such expensive toys.

While looking in the toy section, I noticed a small boy of about 5
years old, pressing a doll against his chest.
He kept on touching the hair of the doll and looked so sad. I
wondered who was this doll for. Then the little boy turned to the old woman
next to him, "Granny, are you sure I don't have enough money?"

The old lady replied, "You know that you don't have enough money to
buy this doll, my dear."

Then she asked him to stay here for 5 minutes while she
went to look around. She left quickly.

The little boy was still holding the doll in his hand.

Finally, I started to walk toward him and I asked him who did he want
to give this doll to.

"It is the doll that my sister loved most and wanted so
much for this Christmas. She was so sure that Santa Claus would
bring it to her."

I replied to him that maybe Santa Claus will bring it to her, after
all, and not to worry.

But he replied to me sadly. "No, Santa Claus can not bring
it to her where she is now. I have to give the doll to my mother so
that she can give it to her when she goes there." His eyes were so sad
while saying this. "My sister has gone to be with God. Daddy says
that
Mummy will also go to see God very soon, so I thought that she could
bring the doll with her to give it to my sister."

My heart nearly stopped. The little boy looked up at me and said, "I
told daddy to tell mummy not to go yet. I asked him to wait
until I come back from the supermarket."

Then he showed me a very nice photo of him where he was
laughing. He then told me, "I also want mummy to take this photo with
her so that she will not forget me." I love my mummy and I wish she
doesn't have to leave me but daddy says that she has to go to be with
my
little sister."

Then he looked again at the doll with sad eyes, very quietly.

I quickly reached for my wallet and took a few notes and
said to the boy, "What if we checked again, just in case if you have
enough money?"

"Ok," he said. "I hope that I have enough."

I added some of my money to his without him seeing and we
started to count it. There was enough for the doll, and even some
spare money. The little boy said, "Thank you God for giving me enough
money."

Then he looked at me and added, "I asked yesterday before I
slept for God to make sure I have enough money to buy this doll so
that mummy can give it to my sister. He heard me." "I also wanted to
have
enough money to buy a white rose for my mummy, but I didn't dare to
ask
God too much. But He gave me enough to buy the doll and the white
rose." "You know, my mummy loves white rose."

A few minutes later, the old lady came again and I left
with my trolley. I finished my shopping in a totally different state
from when I started. I couldn't get the little boy out of my mind.

Then I remembered a local newspaper article 2 days ago,
which mentioned of a drunk man in a truck who hit a car where there
was one
young lady and a little girl. The little girl died right away, and the
mother was left in a critical state. The family had to decide whether
to pull the plug on the life-assisting machine, because the young lady
would not be able to get out of the coma. Was this the family of the
little boy?

Two days after this encounter with the little boy, I read in the
newspaper that the young lady had passed away.

I couldn't stop myself and went to buy a bunch of white roses and I
went to the mortuary where the body of the young woman was exposed for
people to see and make last wish before burial.

She was there, in her coffin, holding a beautiful white
rose in her hand with the photo of the little boy and the doll placed
over
her chest. I left the place crying, feeling that my life had been
changed forever. The love that this little boy had for his mother and
his
sisteris still, to that day, hard to imagine. And in a fraction of
a second, a drunk man had taken all this away from him.

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