The job sounded simple enough. Sweep the floor. Dust the furniture. Wash a few dishes.
She promised to pay me 200 pesos every visit.
For a college student like me, that wasn’t pocket change. That was bus fare, meals, maybe enough to breathe for a few more days.
So I said yes.
But after a few visits, I started noticing things I couldn’t ignore.
Her refrigerator was almost always empty. A couple of eggs. Wilted vegetables. Sometimes just rice and a little sauce. That was it.
I asked her once why she lived like that.
She just smiled weakly and said her children lived far away and she didn’t want to bother them.
That answer stayed with me.
So after I finished cleaning, I started staying a little longer. I would walk to the market, buy meat or fish when I could afford it, and cook her something warm and real.
She loved that.
Every time I placed a bowl of hot soup or stew in front of her, her eyes lit up in a way that made the whole tired house feel less lonely.
Sometimes her joint pain got so bad she could barely stand. On those days, I took her to the public hospital myself and sat there waiting with her for hours until she got her medicine.
One afternoon, as we were leaving the hospital, she reached for my hand and held it gently.
Then she said in a quiet voice, “You remind me so much of my youngest son. He was a good boy too.”
I didn’t know what to say after that.
Maybe because I could hear the ache behind her words. Maybe because I knew what loneliness looked like, and hers had been sitting in that house for years.
So I kept helping her.
Week after week.
Month after month.
And the truth is… she never paid me.
Not once.
She always had a reason. Next week. After I fix something. When my money comes. Soon, Diego. I promise.
But somehow, I never walked away.
Maybe I felt sorry for her. Maybe I believed she meant it. Or maybe, deep down, I knew I wasn’t just cleaning her house anymore.
I was keeping her company in the last chapter of her life.
Then one day, she died.
And I thought that was the end of the story.
I thought all the time, effort, and unpaid work would disappear with her.
But after the funeral, someone handed me a single letter she had left behind.
My name was written on the front.
I opened it expecting an apology.
What I found inside left me completely shaken.
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Type ‘SAFE’ and I’ll continue.
