પોતાના અને પરાયા

An old man lived in a nice big house with his wife. Their only son was settled in Canada with his wife and kids.

One  sad day, the old man died of heart-attack. His wife was devastated. The  son came from Canada to attend his funeral. He was very depressed about  not being with him in his father's last days. He stayed with his mother  for about a week and then decided to take her to Canada along with her.  He didn't want to lose his mother the same way. The mother was ecstatic  at the thought of living with her son and his family. They sold the  house and other precious belongings. Packed everything and went to the  airport. 

After the baggage and security check-in, they were  waiting in the seating area. The boy felt an urge to pee and told his  mother that he was going to the wash room and will be back in 5 min. The  mother nodded and waited for him.

And he never came back.

Yes,  he flew to Canada alone. Naive and innocent, she kept wondering where  he was. She didn't know what to do. So she kept waiting. Hours passed  by. She was crying. After about 15 hours, a security person came up to  her and asked her what the matter was. She told him in a broken voice  that her son abandoned her. That he sold their house, took away all the  savings and left her alone and poor to die homeless. That she didn't  have any relatives in the city and no place to go. The guard felt for  her but he couldn't do much. He advised her to go back to her locality  and ask her neighbors or the new owners of their house to lend some  space. He dropped her at her old place. 

It was sold to a young  couple having a kid. The lady opened the door. The old mother explained  her situation, crying her eyes out. She said, "Give me some space in any  corner of the room, I will clean the house, do the dishes, anything you  want." The lady brought her into the room where her husband was  watching TV.
The couple was kind and the husband said, "We have got a  lot of space here so keeping you won't be a problem. But we have got no  parents of our own. So if you stay here as our mother, then only we  would allow you a place here." 
The lady was overwhelmed.
Now she is staying with them. She takes care of their kid and they treat her like their mother. 

I  had tears in my eyes when my mother told me this. Our parents do more  than they feasibly can to give us the best childhood. They are squashed  financially, physically and emotionally in the process. And when it is  our time to return the favour as they grow old, some of us resort to  such brutalities. Thankfully there still are some good people to hold  this world together with love.

This is a world where blood  relatives could turn out to be absolutely heartless and you could find  selfless love in absolute strangers.