I used to think Grandma Lourdes skipped family dinners because she was stingy or didn’t like crowds. Only after she passed did we learn the truth. A woman named Janine arrived at our door in tears, holding a photo. For three years, she said, Grandma had bought groceries for her children, paying electric bills and leaving toys at Christmas — all in secret.
More people appeared with similar stories. A man in a wheelchair said she visited weekly to play checkers. A teen told us she helped him apply to college and gave him my grandfather’s briefcase for luck. At home, we found spiral notebooks filled with brief entries: “Dropped off soup,” “Paid bill for J,” “Wave made him smile.” Between grocery lists, she kept a page titled “People to pray for.” All our names were there.