A woman who was kicked out by her rich father at sixteen for taking up with a poor man ends up living on the streets with her four children after her husband died.
Steve Walton was far from thrilled when his butler told him that Pastor Morris was waiting to see him. He was tired after a long flight from Singapore and in no mood for the man’s lectures or pleas for support for the community.
He had the pastor shown in and waved an impatient hand at his greeting. “Get on with it, man!” he snapped. “What is it that you want this time?”
“Mr. Walton, I saw Susan,” the pastor said quietly, and Steve’s heart nearly stopped. His only daughter had left his house nearly fifteen years before, never to be seen again…
“Susan?” Steve cried anxiously. “Where? When? How is she?”
“I was in Los Angeles, helping out a friend who has a mission among the homeless and that’s where I saw her,” the pastor said.
“She was a volunteer? Did you tell her I’ve been looking for her?” asked Steve.
“No,” Pastor Morris said gently. “She wasn’t a volunteer, Mr. Walton. She’s homeless. She and her children are living in a car.”
Steve found himself so dizzy he had to sit down. “Homeless? My Susan? Children?” he gasped.
“I’m afraid so,” the pastor said. “And she wouldn’t even listen to me when I told her to come home.”
“But why?” asked Steve angrily. “She’s not with that loser anymore, is she?”
“Her husband passed away three years ago, Mr. Walton,” the pastor explained. “And she told me she wouldn’t bring her children into a house where their father is despised.”
Steve Walton felt that old familiar wave of rage sweep through him. Fifteen years later, Susan was still defying him! He remembered the scene in his study, and Susan’s steady eyes looking into his as he ranted.
“Pregnant at sixteen, and by the GARDNER!” he’d screamed. “Well, we are going to have THAT taken care of, and HE’S fired! You will never see that man again!”
“THAT is my baby, daddy,” Susan had said in a tremulous voice. “And HE is the man I love. I’m going to marry him.”
“You marry that man and you’re on your own, Susan, do you hear?” Steve shouted furiously. “No more money, nothing! You marry him and you get out of my house!”
Susan had looked at him with tears in her eyes. “I love you, daddy,” she’d said. Then she turned around and walked away. Even though Steve had set detectives to find her, no one had been able to trace her.
“How many children?” he asked Pastor Morris.
“Four,” the pastor said. “Three girls and a boy. Beautiful children.”
Steve picked up his phone and spat out orders for his plane to be readied. “Pastor, would you come with me to Los Angeles, take me to my little girl?” he asked quietly.
The pastor nodded, and within two hours, the two men were on board Steve’s private jet winging their way south. There was a limo waiting for them, and the pastor directed them to a parking lot outside a large mall.
At the furthest end of the lot, a pickup truck was parked, with a tent set up at the back. Pastor Morris had told Steve that when Susan’s husband died in a work accident, the insurance company had refused to pay out and the bank foreclosed on the mortgage.
Susan had piled the children and their few belongings into the old pickup. She worked at the mall as a cleaner. She and the children used the mall’s facilities and bought whatever was leftover at the restaurants at the end of the night.
Still, she had managed to keep the four children fed, clean, and in school. As the two men approached the truck, they heard cheerful voices and laughter. Then two children tumbled out of the back.
The biggest girl, about fourteen, was laughing as she tickled a boy of about seven. The children stopped and gaped at Steve and Pastor Morris. “Mom!” the girl yelled. “That old preacher friend of yours is here!”
A well-remembered voice asked from inside the tent, “Preacher Morris?” Then Susan climbed out and Steve could see the shock in her face when she saw him standing next to the pastor.
“Daddy?” she asked, and her eyes filled with tears.
Steve was shocked. His daughter was barely thirty-one, but she looked much older. Her face was worn and lined with worry and suffering, her hands coarsened by hard work.
“Susan,” Steve cried. “Look at you! Look at what HE did to my princess! I wanted so much for you! And you married that loser! What could he give you? Poverty?”
Susan shook her head and said, “He loved me, daddy, and he gave me 4 beautiful children. He died, and I had nowhere to go, but I’ve done what I can for my children. I will always love the father of my children, daddy, just like I’ve always loved you.”
Steve found that he had tears running down his face. “Forgive me, Susan,” he sobbed. “Please forgive me. Come home, I want you all to come home with me. Let me help you take care of the children!”
Steve found himself holding his weeping daughter and knew that everything was going to be alright. Susan introduced him to his three granddaughters, then she placed her hand on the boy’s shoulder. “And this,” she smiled, “is little Stevie!”
“You named him after me?” Steve asked, astounded. “After what I did?”
“I love you, daddy,” she said softly. “Don’t you know that?”
That afternoon, they all flew home to Texas. It was the beginning of a better life for all of them.
What can we learn from this story?
Love and accept your children unconditionally. Steve was furious with Susan for loving a poor man and made the biggest mistake of his life by losing his daughter.
Don’t judge people for their wealth or influence. Steve hated his son-in-law because he was poor, but he was a loving husband to Susan and a dedicated dad.
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.
Heartbreaking reason dad buried his four year old daughter in a giant doll’s house
Tragedy struck the Earles family in 1933 when their son passed away as a result of illness
In one cemetery in pastoral Alabama, USA lies the grave of a youthful girl but it’s no ordinary remembrance of the life that was lost, as it’s in the form of a giant doll’s house that has been stood for nearly a century.
For little Nadine Earles, life ended snappily in the small city of Lanett and tragically so, with the child not seeing in her fifth birthday.
The time was 1933, Christmas was just one week down.
All Nadine wanted for the gleeful period was a doll house to play with her toys in, but the little girl sorely noway saw the big day come, with Nadine dying from diphtheria exactly one week before on 18 December, as per Mausoleums.com.
Despite not being suitable to admit her doll house on Christmas itself, her pater
Julian Earles went one step further and gave her the ultimate shoot off.
Gone was the rustic toy and in its place, a giant doll house made out of slipup, fit with proper windows and a door, all of which took her father 18 months to complete.
On what would have been her fifth birthday on 3 April, 1934, crowds gathered outside the doll house to celebrate Nadine’s life, with cutlet and ice cream on offer to those present.
Inside, Nadine’s particular particulars were placed, including a perambulator , tricycle, toys, and high president, and they remain there to this day.
Her things are also alongside Nadine’s factual burial spot and monument, which have dolls placed on top.
Dad Julian maintained the grave until his death in 1976, with Nadine’s mama , Alma, doing the same until she passed away in 1981. Both their graves are coming to the doll house itself.
After the death of both of Nadine’s parents, the grave was taken on board by Lanett megacity council, which maintains it to this day as a original literal corner.
For locals, it has come commodity they involve in periodic fests, with presents left for Nadine at Christmas and donations pushed through the mailbox.
To this day, a print of the completed giant doll house remains inside the structure itself, with Nadine’s family and musketeers stood in front of it to celebrate the poignant moment on what would have been her fifth birthday.
A videotape of the grave has gone viral on TikTok, with people leaving their own commentary to the Earles family.
” That’s beautiful,” one stoner wrote.” RIP little Nadine Earles. RIP to your parents as well.”
Another said” Windows sparkle. No cobwebs. White material looks clean. Someone maintains this veritably well.”
A third said” This is my home day, the locals embellish it for the leaves and kiddies take her stuff for her birthday to this day!”
And a fourth added” Credit to whoever is still taking care of the grave. It still looks new.”
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