Mia stood silently.<\/p>\n
Her heart pounding.<\/p>\n
The elegant woman opened her purse.<\/p>\n
And pulled out a photograph.<\/p>\n
Old.<\/p>\n
Slightly worn.<\/p>\n
She placed it on the counter.<\/p>\n
Mia looked down.<\/p>\n
It was the old man.<\/p>\n
Smiling.<\/p>\n
Much younger.<\/p>\n
Standing beside a little girl.<\/p>\n
Mia looked back up.<\/p>\n
Confused.<\/p>\n
“Who is he?”<\/p>\n
The woman’s eyes filled with tears.<\/p>\n
“My father.”<\/p>\n
Mia froze.<\/p>\n
The diner suddenly felt very quiet.<\/p>\n
The woman took a shaky breath.<\/p>\n
“I’ve been searching for him for three years.”<\/p>\n
She looked at the photograph again.<\/p>\n
Then smiled sadly.<\/p>\n
“He disappeared after my mother died.”<\/p>\n
Mia’s eyes widened.<\/p>\n
The woman reached into her purse once more.<\/p>\n
Pulling out a folded note.<\/p>\n
“He left this behind.”<\/p>\n
Carefully\u2014<\/p>\n
she unfolded it.<\/p>\n
One sentence was written inside.<\/p>\n
I don’t want to be a burden to anyone.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mia felt her throat tighten.<\/p>\n The woman wiped away a tear.<\/p>\n “Yesterday was his birthday.”<\/p>\n A painful silence followed.<\/p>\n Then she looked directly at Mia.<\/p>\n “The waitress told me someone gave him a free meal.”<\/p>\n Mia nodded slowly.<\/p>\n The woman smiled through her tears.<\/p>\n “That was the first time he’d accepted help from anyone.”<\/p>\n Mia’s eyes began to water.<\/p>\n The woman reached across the counter.<\/p>\n Taking Mia’s hand.<\/p>\n Then she whispered\u2014<\/p>\n “Because of your kindness…”<\/p>\n “…he finally agreed to come home.”<\/p>\n And suddenly\u2014<\/p>\n the bowl of soup and plate of rice<\/p>\n felt like the most important meal<\/p>\n Mia had ever served.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mia stood silently. Her heart pounding. The elegant woman opened her purse. And pulled out a photograph. Old. Slightly worn. She placed it on the counter. Mia looked down. It was the old man. Smiling. Much younger. Standing beside a little girl. Mia looked back up. Confused. “Who is he?” The woman’s eyes filled with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trending-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storytimes.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}