Happiest Day For Who??

“This was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives.” Paula looked at her brother, Simon who had been standing beside her most of the day for moral support. She was glad that he had been there for her to support her when she felt like passing out. Since that awful day of their parents had got killed for seventeen dollars, her life had seemed like it was upside down and changing every moment. This morning, she had felt like the sun was going to shine on her and chase away the clouds of depression away. As the day ticked on, her good mood also changed from being sunshine to a dark, depressed day of wondering how and why this ugly thing had happened to someone that she cared about deeply.

Today marked her parent’s anniversaries; they would have been married for sixty years and were planning to get remarried. To redo their vows of marriage to make them fresh in their minds, vows of love, cherished protections, and guidance of each other. Her parents were, so full of love and they always seemed to be there for each other, never very far away from the other one.  Her dad was at the hospital every time she went into labor and stayed there well after one of the kids were born, he was there for her open heart surgery and he would be there for anything that went wrong in her life.  Her mother was at the hospital when her dad got hit by a car, when he broke his leg, and when he had been in his car accident with a drunk driver. They were always there for each other to love, support, and just be there as a listening ear when they wanted to talk out of boredom or to ask for advice.   They were in love like the first day they got married and now, they would be buried together.

Paula had started thinking that everything was going to be fine and she was proud of her parents redoing the vows to promise that their love would stay fresh and strong.  That was only a week ago as they planned their wedding; it was going to be a small wedding of the immediate family to hear their parents repeating their vows. Paula thought back to the day that her mother had invited her to go dress shopping. She wanted a white dress that was down to her knees and they had laughed when her mother had remembered wearing a white dress on the day of their actual wedding day because she was a virgin. Her mother jokingly said that she was no virgin now because she had two beautiful children. Paula loved her mother and dad with all her soul and spirit.

Now, five day later, they were planning their parent’s funeral because some drug addict wanted to rob them and got mad because her dad was only carrying seventeen dollars. He had shot them in cold blood as her mother stood there begging for their lives. The monster had shot her dad first as he handed over the little money they had taken out of the bank that day and when he turned toward their mother; she had started to back up as if to get away from the monster that took both of their lives without a second thought. The killer had grabbed the seventeen dollars and whatever else he thought was of valuable.    Paula wanted to shake the monster and asked him why her parents? Why not someone else that had walked down that path to the clubhouse of the resort that they were staying at?

Hearing the gunshots, the guards took off on a run to see what was going on. They rounded the corner as the killer was leaving the scene, so they were able to give a good description to the police. Simon had been told first by the manager and the police chief, and then had the unpleasant task of telling his sister that the parents she loved and cherished were now dead because they had stopped at the bank to get money. The killer had been outside watching them planning his evil deed and when they didn’t have any bigger dollars, the killer had got mad enough to kill them. He shot them half an hour before they were due to redo their vows, he had shot them dead and then he robbed them of their rings, watch, anything that looked valuable to him.

It took the police about six hours to find and arrest the monster that had shot their parents dead. He had gone with them willingly and admits the murder as soon as they started to question him about it. He had told the police that he needed the money to buy drugs for his habit and he had seen them coming out of a bank with money in their dad’s hand. He thought that they had got more than twenty dollars, so when he decided to rob them his thoughts had turned to being rich with their

money. Before he shot them dead, they had got their car out of a parking lot which had costed them three dollars. He had got mad when they stood in front of him and handed him seventeen measly dollars. What could he do with seventeen dollars, that wouldn’t buy any drugs that his system needed so bad? 

Tears rolled down her soft cheeks as she stood beside her brother at the graveside funeral service, they had for their parents and she had grabbed hold of her brother’s arm for support as they stood there listening to Pastor Jim continue on about their charity to others. Someone whispered to another “And see where their so-called charity got them. If he would have just ask them, they would have giving him the money freely. They always said to help others because there is someone worse off than them.” Paula felt a surge of angry as she knew deep down in her soul that her parents were always helping others, they had enough to live on and they considered giving away a little extra each month to help others.  She knew that she was going to continue on with her parent’s wisdom, in God’s wisdom to bless other people. She wasn’t going to listen to negative remarks like the one she had overheard; she was going to give in her parent’s name until it hurt.

She leaned over to her brother and whispered “By then it was too late!” he gave her a puzzled look to what she meant. They stood there for a few minutes looking at each other and she would tell him later what she overheard to clarify what she was talking about. She wasn’t going to let some negative remarks sour her life and she knew the charity that her parents gave to which she was going to continue in their name.

“By then it was too late!”