When the single mother of a seven-year-old gets sick, a garbage man comes to her aid. When the mother gets home, everything has changed.
Meredith Yarrow didn’t feel good. Even though the single mom worked late, she could never sleep past 6 a.m. because of the garbage men. She yelled, “Shut up!” from her window. “Everyone wants to sleep!”
The trash man said, “Sorry, Ma’am.” “We’re just doing our job!” Meredith gave him a mean look and shut her window hard. The man put the heavy trash cans in the back of the truck after emptying them.
Meredith said, “That’s disgusting.” “I’m going to say something bad!”
She had no idea that she would soon be very thankful to the young man she had just yelled at.
After a week, Meredith woke up again to the sound of the trashman. She grumbled and got up to go to the bathroom. As she walked, she started to feel dizzy and sick and broke out in a cold sweat.
“Wendy!” Meredith cried and called for her daughter, who was seven years old. “Help me, Wendy!” Meredith was already on the floor when Wendy got up and went to her.
“Get help,” she told her daughter in a whisper. “Get help!” The little girl saw her big, strong mom on the floor and began to cry. Meredith told her to be brave. “Please, sweetie…”
And that was all Meredith could think of. She woke up in a hospital, where a doctor was watching over her. She gasped, “Wendy!” “Where is my little girl?”
The doctor said in a soft voice, “Your daughter is fine.” “You have to sleep. Your blood pressure is too high and could kill you.” He messed around with a syringe, and before Meredith knew it, she was falling back to sleep.
She felt much better when she woke up again. The doctor told her she could go home, but she had to slow down and start taking medicine for high blood pressure.
The doctor told her to avoid stress. “Get some rest, eat, and play with your daughter!”
“My whole life is stress, doctor!” she said. What should I do? I have no idea who is taking care of my daughter!”
Meredith took an Uber home because she was so stressed out. She told herself that at least the house was still there. When she opened the door, Wendy ran up to give her a hug. “Mommy!” she said in a happy voice. “You’re home!”
“Oh, honey!” cried Meredith. “I worried so much about you!”
“It’s fine, mom,” said Wendy. “Jason helped me out.”
“Jason?” Meredith questioned. “What is his name?”
Wendy pointed, and a tall man with a shy look was standing in the hallway. Wendy said, “That’s Jason.” “We are friends.” Meredith thought she knew Jason, but she couldn’t quite place him.
She said “Hello” in a nice way. “It’s nice to meet you, and thanks for taking care of Wendy. How do you know that she’s my daughter?
Wendy cried, “Oh, mom!” “Don’t you know? You told me to get help, so I went outside and screamed until Jason came. He helped you and called 911 when he came in.”
“You live close by?” Meredith asked.
Jason smiled and said, “No.” He didn’t look shy at all; he was very handsome. “I’m the trash man in your neighborhood!”
Meredith turned red. Oh, she said in a whisper. “I’m always yelling at you!”
“Mommy, you’ve got to see what Jason did!” Wendy started to cry and reached for Meredith’s hand. She dragged her mother past the living room and into her bedroom.
Meredith was stunned by what she saw. Her house was clean and in order. Wendy’s room really opened my eyes. Jason had put up pretty shelves with fairy lights for Wendy’s toys.
Everything was beautiful! Wendy told her mother, “Jason also made dinner.” “He cooks well.”
Jason was next to turn red. He mumbled, “Just trying to help out.”
Meredith said, “Thank you.” “It’s very important to me. Wendy and I don’t have any family in town, so I was worried about her… Thank you for being our friend even though I treated you badly.”
Jason and Meredith are now best friends, and she doesn’t yell anymore when the truck drives by at 6 a.m. She brings Jason and his coworker two cups of coffee.