Little Black Book $20,000 and A Woman

Little Black Book

$20,000

And

A woman

Long ago in the midst of time....in Grover, North Carolina. This was a place where families thrived, achieved, and looked out for one another but, there was one particular woman who looked out for everyone around, did not have a bad bone in her. Ms. Betsy, this sweet woman was the apple of everyone’s eye, and she is my inspiration for this story. Allow me to introduce this wonderful woman, Ms. Betsy, 97 was born and raised in Grover, North Carolina, she lived with her parents and it was here where she was taught how to take care of livestock, and anything else that could move. She was not a lazy person; this woman was a “get it done person” and believed in doing what needed to be done for herself as well as her family. A very loving woman I may say, she saw good in every person that interacted with her no matter what the person was going through.

This woman believed in working and making her own dreams, she would work from sunrise until sunset with a smile on her face. This woman was employed for 50 years as a “cotton picker” and for those who do not know what a “cotton picker” is, allow me to explain please. I know most of everybody rides by a big field with white fluffy balls that looks like flowers but, a “cotton picker” would go into the field pluck these big fluffy white balls off a vine and bag them, now at the time cotton was being used to make clothes like shirts, and underwear’s. This woman was only making .10 cents a day, man how times have changed. While employed even though her earnings were not much this woman decided to start her own savings, so at the end of each week a certain amount would be taken out and placed in a secret spot which she assumed nobody knew where she had placed her savings (so she thought) but, was unaware that her dad kept an eye on her for several years, meaning he knew where she kept her savings.

Now, every time this woman would take out what she wanted to save, the date, and amount would be written down in a little black book and this continued for 30 years. While this lady was working her parents would do things around the house to help lessen the load and both parents loved to travel and collect things like receipts, cards, and old coins box after box was full of things they wanted to save. They did not believe in throwing anything away.

So, one day the family was sitting around watching television and the phone rings when answered, it was the parents doctor he delivered some bad news it was at this time the parents learned that they had cancer so, with this news the parents had too much faith in God to allow this to get them down, with this being said they decided to just leave the news to themselves and their daughter and keep living their lives to the fullest as if nothing happened. But it was at this point Ms. Betsy decided to stop writing in the little black book and decided to add up her savings and after adding she had saved $10,000 within 30 years.

This woman continued working, as a matter of fact, she worked 20 more years to be exact but, it was about 3 weeks after not writing in the little black book her dad decided to take over writing in the book unaware of her dad’s good graces, see her dad was the type of man that nothing could stop him from being who he was, he loved his “baby girl”.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into years 10 years came fast. Dad decided to count his daughter's savings and at this time she had a total of $15,000 and this was from what he was helping her to save.

Life went on, still unaware that her dad was helping. This lady continued working and 10 more years later dad decided to stop keeping track of her savings, at this time he gifted her with $5,000 so he counted her savings again and the total came to be $20,000. It was then he placed the money in an old brown paper bag and decided to take the money to the bank of his choice, had it placed in a safe deposit box for her and left the bank.

He returned home, picked up his wife and they went on an adventure, not telling anyone anything they were out doing what they loved doing travelling. Everyone already knew how they would just up and leave because they were soulmates, everything they did they did it together (true love), so they were fine in everybody's eyes.

So, days turned weeks, weeks turned months, another phone call came in unaware her parents were hospitalized she thought they was just out enjoying life, so the phone was answered by this woman and the call was about her parents, the news was news no one wants to hear but she lost her parents, the cancer had spread over the course of the years. At this point her heart dropped and she felt as if she had lost everything, even her mind. It was then this woman decided to quit working and do things around the house her parents used to do. After all, she had already put in 50 years of work.

A week later after her parents lost their life they was laid to rest and after a few weeks of her parents passing, this woman made up in her mind that she had to pull herself together yes, it is tough losing your parents but, “what do not kill you, will only make you stronger” it did for me, in her mind the thoughts “my dad would not want me down like this” so, this woman pulled herself together and went on with her life the best way she knew how, yes it was difficult without her parents, but God helped her through her troubled times.

One Saturday morning around the break of dawn the decision was made by her to do some house cleaning to get herself motivated, as she was cleaning her house which became hers when she lost her parents, entered her parents' room started dusting and sweeping and when swept under the bed, a box was found, her parents believed in keeping everything now at this time her parents were really being missed.

As continued on to grab the box you could tell the box had been there for years because, of the dust that had settled on the box so, the dust was blown off by her and proceeded to open the box, behold there was a little black book in the box, she remembered this was the book she had been writing in years ago, the little black book was opened, she noticed the handwriting one was hers the other was her dad, she sits down and continued reading the black book and she realized this was the savings that her and her dad had contributed too. Near the back of this book there was a note attached and the note stated, “my baby girl you do not have to continue reading because I have added everything up for you,” this is when tears rolled down her cheeks she smiled and continued reading the note and at the end of the note it stated,” I love you and I had your back the whole time, Love Dad.” It was then she realized her dad had been watching over her, with excitement and joy in her heart she stopped to think, “I had quit writing in this little black book years ago, but my dad continued”.

Her thoughts were collected as continuing through the box, papers were found unaware what these papers were, when opened it was information on the bank where her dad had stored her money this woman was yet again excited, which by the way I would have been excited as well because, when this woman gave up writing in the book her dad did not.

So, finishing up her cleaning she decided to go to the bank her dad had chosen, once arrived, a teller greeted her and the papers were presented to the teller from her dad with no questions asked, the teller walked her to the vault and in that vault are little security boxes no one can get access to without certain security measures like, the box number, social security number, and a special key that must be functioned at the same time to unlock the security box once the security box was opened the teller left her with her thoughts.

The box was opened and inside the box was a note and envelope. The note was read first and it stated,” my baby girl as stated before, I have added everything up but, I will allow you to see how much savings you have, Love Dad”. Then the envelope was opened and low and behold there was a lot of cash, so she started counting, after counting her total savings was $20,000 cash all big bills, $15,000 this lady worked so hard for and $5,000 her dad gifted her with. The look on this woman's face was priceless and it was at this moment and time this woman felt that all her hard work had paid off, the money was placed back into the security box and this woman left the bank with tears of joy and a smile on her face.

Ms. Betsy was a proud woman who always kept her hopes, spirit, and dreams up and at the end of the day you will always know who loves you... Ms. Betsy did.