\n
$\"Mrs.$ \n\n
Mrs. Cardigan and two other neighbors came to complain about her yard in person.\n
\u201cMrs. Teller, I\u2019ve sent many notes, and they\u2019ve all gone unnoticed, apparently,\u201d Mrs. Cardigan began. Her hands were raised, and her body moved with her attitude, which had a mocking tone that Sarah didn\u2019t enjoy. \u201cYou seem to think having a yard in this condition is perfectly normal, not to mention the exterior, which is completely falling apart. We\u2019re about to establish a homeowner\u2019s association, and this just won\u2019t do! You\u2019ll actually get fined for this. Is that what you want?\u201d\n\n
The other neighbors behind her nodded their heads, added a few complaints of their own, and even laughed at some point. Mrs. Cardigan had the worst cackle of them all. Sarah knew it looked terrible, but fixing her garden was not on her list of priorities.\n
\n
She wanted to respond to all the vitriol the older woman gave her. How dare these people come to her house and mock and threaten her? They had no idea what was going on with her life. Also, if she didn\u2019t join the HOA, they wouldn\u2019t be able to give her any fines. She wanted to return their statements and even mock them too. But that wasn\u2019t her personality. Sarah was better than that.\n
\u201cMrs. Cardigan, Mrs. Levy, and Mr. Sanders, would you please come in?\u201d Sarah offered, gesturing with her hand so they could enter the house. The three neighbors were obviously shocked at her words. They expected a fight, but she wouldn\u2019t stoop down to their level. \u201cWe can talk more about this issue inside while having some tea.\u201d\n
\n
\n
$\"They$ \n\n
They were shocked when Sarah invited them inside and offered them tea.\n\n
She ushered them into her house and told them to sit in her living room while she brought out her last remaining tea bags and gathered all her courage to face them with the truth. She took a deep breath, smiled, and returned to the living room.\n
\n
\u201cHere, you go,\u201d she said in the politest voice she could muster.\n
Mrs. Cardigan took her cup of tea with apparent reluctance, wondering why Sarah was being nice to them. \u201cSo, are you going to do something about this?\u201d she asked.\n
Finally, Sarah sat down. \u201cMrs. Cardigan, I\u2019ve read all your memos. But the truth is that gardening is not a priority for my family right now. Our toddler is very sick. Do you hear the rumbling of a machine from a distance?\u201d she asked, pointing towards the hallway.\n
The neighbors nodded, although they hadn\u2019t noticed until Sarah pointed that out. \u201cIt\u2019s not that noisy, but you can hear it. That\u2019s my baby\u2019s breathing machine. He\u2019s sick with a respiratory disease that could pose a danger to his life. And my husband lost his big job after the company went bankrupt. The only thing he\u2019s been able to find in this recession is a night shift at a can factory. It\u2019s grueling, so he\u2019s sleeping right now. See, the door to my bedroom is closed,\u201d she continued, pointing towards another door in the hallway.\n
\n
\n
$\"She$ \n\n
She explained why gardening her yard was not on her list of priorities.\n\n
Mrs. Cardigan wanted to speak up. \u201cWell, that\u2019s \u2013\u201d\n
But Sarah didn\u2019t let her continue, although her voice was still serene and kind. \u201cAnd I have two other kids who should be home from school at any moment now. I simply have no time or frankly any money to fix my yard. Everything goes towards food, keeping this roof, and medical bills. Can you understand my situation now?\u201d\n
The three neighbors looked solemn now that she had finished explaining her situation.\n
Finally, Mrs. Levy said something. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know. We are so sorry, Mrs. Teller. We hope that your baby gets better quickly,\u201d she spoke sincerely.\n
\u201cThank you,\u201d Sarah replied, nodding her head at her. The others echoed the sentiment, and Mrs. Cardigan looked like she had been scolded like never before.\n
They excused themselves quickly, thanking her for the tea and adding more apologies. And Sarah maintained her kind fa\u00e7ade through the entire exchange, hoping they would stop with the complaints and the mocking of her yard.\n
\n
\n
$\"She$ \n\n
She peeked at them briefly through the curtains but shrugged, hoping they wouldn\u2019t come back.\n\n
\n
But she closed the door and peeked at them through her curtains. All three of them had stopped a few yards away and were discussing something intensely. She shrugged and went to check on her son.\n
A few hours later, she heard a telltale sound of a lawnmower and saw Mr. Sanders trimming her lawn using it. She was about to tell him it was unnecessary, but Mrs. Cardigan and Mrs. Levy joined him with gardening tools.\n
To her shock, others neighbors showed up, bringing flowers, more tools, and everything to help fix the exterior of the house. Sarah went outside to thank them and offered to pitch in, but they wanted to do it themselves.\n
\u201cHoney, I was awful to you about my complaints. I\u2019m so sorry. Let us do this for you, to make it up to you,\u201d Mrs. Cardigan insisted as she pushed Sarah back into her house.\n
\n
Sarah\u2019s eyes watered as she peeked at her neighbors through the window, and Andrew finally woke up to see this new development. She explained everything, and he told her something she would never forget.\n\n
\n
\n
\n
$\"The$ \n\n\n
\n
\u201cPeople are intrinsically good and they want to do good. We just have to remind them sometimes,\u201d he said and went to prepare something to eat. Sarah nodded, wiping her tears away.\n
But their neighbors didn\u2019t focus on just gardening. Soon, Mr. Sanders made some calls and got an interview for Andrew, another big corporation. The job offer consisted of regular hours and a salary similar to what he used to have before he was laid off. Luckily, he got the gig, and everything changed for the family.\n
What can we learn from this story?\n
People are good at heart, but they sometimes have to be reminded of it.\u00a0As soon as Sarah\u2019s neighbors discovered her situation, they decided to take action and help them.\n
Respect your neighbors no matter what.\u00a0Sarah\u2019s neighbors mocked and complained until they realized how hard Sarah\u2019s family\u2019s life was. But they soon atoned for their actions.\n
Share this story with your friends. It might brighten their day and inspire them.\n
If you enjoyed this story, you might like\u00a0this one\u00a0about a rich woman who mocked a poor neighbor for being a builder until her house was destroyed.\n
This piece is inspired by stories from the everyday lives of our readers and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone\u2019s life.\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sarah received several complaints about the condition of her house from one of her neighbors, Mrs. Cardigan. The older woman also yelled at her when she couldn\u2019t fix it promptly. But instead of being mad, Sarah invited her and two other neighbors into her home, which surprisingly changed everything.. Mrs. Teller, I can\u2019t believe I […]\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2915,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913\/revisions\/2915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/momentsunfolded.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}