A lonely man who spent every holiday by himself gave his Thanksgiving turkey to a boy who was walking around without shoes. The next year, they all got together for Thanksgiving and all the other holidays.
Michael spent the day before Thanksgiving listening to his coworkers talk about what they had planned. Some of them were going back to where they grew up. Some were going to spend the holidays by the lake, while others were going to spend the holidays with their spouses in fancy hotels.
Michael, on the other hand, was never the kind of person who went all out for the holidays. This was because he didn’t have a family of his own or a girlfriend to spend time with.
If he thought something was important enough to celebrate, he’d take himself out to a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant or go to Las Vegas by himself to let loose and relax.
That Thanksgiving, he was supposed to spend it with his other single friend, but at the last minute, he told him he had met a girl, and the two of them decided to spend the holiday together.
When Michael was young, his mother also left him with relatives to work. She stopped coming back, and when his aunt and uncle died, he had no family left to spend the holidays with.
On Thanksgiving, Michael looked at all of the food he had bought to make dinner and decided it was too much for him to eat alone. Then he had the idea to make a special dinner and bring it to a homeless shelter he always passed on his way home from work.
Michael spent the whole afternoon cooking some of his favorite Thanksgiving meals to keep himself busy. He cooked a turkey, an apple pie, a casserole with beef and mushrooms, and more. As he put all the food into foil containers to take to the shelter, he told himself, “I should have thought of this years ago!”
When he was ready, he walked to the shelter and sat down at a table with everyone to eat a hot meal. One of the boys at the shelter said, “Wow!” He said, “I’ve never had food like this before.”
Michael told them, “Don’t worry, I’ll keep bringing you meals on holidays.” He told everyone there, “Go ahead and eat.” Michael was about to help himself to some food when he saw a boy sitting alone in the far corner of the room without shoes.
Michael put some turkey and other food on a plate and walked over to the boy to make him feel better. He gave the plate to the young man and said, “Eat.”
“Where is your mother?” He was asked by Michael.
“She works all day to save money so that we can buy a good house. “She comes and gets me late at night and brings me back here in the morning,” the boy said quietly. Michael saw himself in the child as soon as he said that.
When Michael was young, his mother would also leave him with relatives while she went to work. She stopped coming back eventually, and when his aunt and uncle died, he had no family left to spend the holidays with.
Michael promised to help the child because he didn’t want the same thing to happen to him. He waited for the boy’s mother to come back to the shelter, and when she did, he offered her a high-paying job with less hours.
When he told her she could work as Michael’s assistant, she asked, “Would you really do that for me?”
“Oh, sure. “I need a secretary who works hard,” Michael said. “I heard from your son Damon that you work all day. By itself, that shows how hard you work.”
Lindy, Michael’s mom, couldn’t stop crying. She thanked Michael a lot, and after Thanksgiving, she went to work for him.
After a year, Michael is sitting with Damon and Lindy at his table at home. Since he fell in love with Lindy and they got married, he no longer had to spend the holidays alone or eat meals alone.
“Prayer before meals?” Before they ate their Thanksgiving meal, Lindy gave him a smile.
He gave them both a nod and held their hands. “Dear God, I thank you for giving us a place to live, tasty food to eat every day, and a family. Last year, you gave me the motivation to cook a meal for the homeless shelter, which helped me find my own family. “I’m glad I’m not alone anymore,” he said in his prayer.
When he was done praying, Lindy and Damon gave him a hug. They told each other how much they loved each other and how grateful they were to have each other as a family.
That night, Michael did not have to go to sleep alone for the first time in a long time. He stayed up all night with his new family and watched movies with them until they all fell asleep in their living room, cuddled up in matching pajamas.