The Grandmothers Gift

THE GRANDMOTHERS GIFT

CHILDREN'S STORIES

 

John was a shy boy from the city. He was only six years old when both his parents died. The people in the village where his parents were buried, said the family had been cursed. This made John feel terrible. He now lived with his grandmother in the city. His grandmother was not too old, but old enough to be his grandmother. She loved him, but told him that she could not give him all the things boys his age wanted.

 

He worked hard at school and he was in a good school. His parents had at least made sure he would have a good education. The other children taunted at him at school though because he only had two sets of uniform and his shoes were always needed mending. He asked his grandmother for more things but all he got from here were stories.

 

The other children came to school everyday with some new gift or other. There was this girl, Rita, and Peter his friend who had everything they wanted. At break time they would always show off their new toys. When John told his grandmother about the teasing of the other children all she would say was, "school won't last forever". How did she know, he thought, his grandmother had never even been to school!

 

Peter and Rita were so used to gifts that they wondered how it was possible to live without them. They watched John closely all year round and every year of school, but not once did he celebrate his birthday and neither did he have any gifts to prove it. All he got from his grandmother were more and more stories.

 

But one day John, Peter and Rita actually did finish school. In those days once a young boy or girl finished school, they were expected to work for food. This was nothing new to John, but Peter and Rita were not used to working. They were so used to getting everything they wanted. The two of them had not learned to do anything for themselves.

 

Peter soon began to long for the free gifts his parents used to give him, but his parents were now far, far away. He wanted to have new clothes, gifts and toys, but there was no longer anybody to give them to him. One day he got so angry he went and stole a brand new radio because he wanted a gift. He was caught by the police and put in jail.

 

Rita became a beautiful girl, but she too could not live without gifts. In fact, she used to pretend that she loved people so that they could give her gifts. Deep down she knew she was lying to them, but she could not help herself because she wanted those gifts so much. Soon her friends discovered her tricks and left her all alone.

 

When John finished school, he went to work as a messenger. He delivered letters and parcels to every part of the city. He was very good at his job and never lost a letter or a parcel on the way. When the other workers asked him how he became so good, he told them that his grandmother had taught him to be as good with letters as he was with her words. His work mates did not understand what he said, but were too proud to ask him what he meant.

 

John never saw Rita or Peter for a long time. But when it was time to get married he invited them to his wedding.  He had found a beautiful girl named frank and they had decided to get married. All the wedding guests came with gifts for John and his bride. Rita and Peter told him how lucky he was and how happy they were that he finally was able to get so many gifts. When the wedding was over Frank turned to John and said, "John I am sorry your grandmother died before the wedding, I am sure she would have given you the biggest gift of all". John turned to his wife and said, "My grandmother may be dead, but she did give me the most precious gift of all". "And what was that?" asked Frank, looking around the house to see if she had missed something. She gave me the words to live a good life.

 

Allan 2007