Woman Leaves House To Neighbor, His Mouth Falls Open When He Sees What’s Inside

“This 96-year-old woman could no longer live in her cottage because she had to go to a care home. So, she decided to donate her home to a homeless person who was always nearby. He was desperate to have a roof over his head, and so he moved in, in good spirits. But what he found inside was stunning.

Steven stood in front of the house with bated breath; he could barely believe that his house was now his. He had been here so many times, but this still felt like the first one. However, he would soon find out that the house was not the only surprise for him. A large suitcase was lying on the table, his name written on it. With his hands shaking, he slowly opened the suitcase, and his jaw instantly dropped. ‘I can’t believe she’s done this!’

But, to better understand Steven’s situation and what he found, a bit of backstory is required. Ellie Barnes was a 96-year-old woman living in rural Alaska. She’d grown up nearby and never felt the need to leave. She loved the area almost as much as she loved Peter, her husband of 72 years. Ellie preferred the peace of the open land, and one of her favorite things to do was just sit on the porch with Peter when the seasons allowed.

However, her simple life was about to be turned upside down. One day, Peter passed away unexpectedly after a short battle in the hospital. Ellie was stunned. Despite their age, she’d never stopped to think about what might happen if Peter died first. He’d always been the healthier of the two of them. What was she going to do without him?

Unlike Ellie and Peter, their children hadn’t exactly fallen in love with Alaska. They chose to move far away and head south to the continental US. Both of Ellie’s daughters offered to take her in if she wanted to move to either Boston or Dallas, but Ellie couldn’t stand the thought of city life. Plus, she had roots in Alaska that no one else seemed to understand.

Ellie had moved to Alaska as a young child and met Peter on her first day of school. As they grew, Ellie dreamed about marrying Peter and starting a magnificent life together. And once they were married, Ellie and Peter struggled to find steady work. Instead of Ellie’s dream home, all they could afford was a small rancher with a single bedroom and a tiny living area. They tried to make it work by saving for repairs as often as possible. By the time Peter passed away, it felt like the house had been patched and mended a million times. Ellie knew that any reasonable person would have demolished it by that point, but there were too many memories to let it go.

With winter coming soon, Ellie needed help making sure that the house could survive another year of snow. Luckily, Ellie was able to get help from one of her neighbors who lived a 10-minute walk away. They’d been friendly for years and offered to see what they could do. When Ellie’s neighbors had trouble of their own, Ellie’s neighbors were getting up in age and couldn’t do a lot of the manual labor that Ellie needed to fix the house. They also had to worry about their son, Stephen, who’d moved home with them a couple of years before after being homeless.

Stephen had been trying to find a job, to no avail. There were few opportunities in such a rural area, and he could never make enough to move out on his own. Stephen was healthy and strong enough to do a lot of the work at Ellie’s house that his parents couldn’t manage. He had free time on his hands and started pitching in to help Ellie however he could. Ellie tried to pay him, but Stephen always refused. He felt that he owed her a debt. After all, the two had met under terrible circumstances.

When Stephen first returned to town, everyone in the small community knew that he’d been homeless. They judged him and wouldn’t give him a chance, and he felt so alone. But Ellie and Peter had welcomed him immediately and pulled him out of his slump by inviting him to dinner every once in a while. He wanted to repay her kindness any way he could. He had no idea that his decision to help would change his life forever.

Stephen kept taking care of Ellie in any way he could. He went grocery shopping, fixed the house, and even finished the repairs. They developed an even stronger bond since Stephen wouldn’t accept any money. She insisted on cooking him dinner and making him a new scarf for the winter. But not everyone was pleased. Stephen’s parents weren’t thrilled to see that their son was working for Ellie for free.

He spent so much time at her house that he didn’t have any left to apply for jobs. Finally, Stephen’s parents told him that he had to choose between helping Ellie and living at home. They couldn’t continue to support him if he wasn’t going to make an effort to support himself. While Stephen understood, he was also surprised that his parents weren’t more generous with Ellie when she had always been so kind to everyone. It was time to make a decision.

Stephen told his parents that he wasn’t willing to abandon Ellie. They’d spent months together, and he considered her his only friend. Stephen’s parents told him to pack his things and leave. They didn’t want him to be homeless again, but they didn’t know what else to do, and neither did Stephen. He was at a crossroads. He knew that if he left town, he would have better opportunities in one of the bigger cities. That would mean leaving Ellie behind. He could still call her and catch up, but he wouldn’t be able to help anymore with any of her errands. What would she do without him?

Stephen decided that he had to move away for his own good. His parents were thrilled. He wasn’t even worried about what the future in the city would hold. All he could think about was saying goodbye to Ellie. Though Stephen went to break the news to Ellie, she was devastated. They had grown close after spending so much time together. But Stephen felt like he didn’t have any other choice.

Ellie tried to get by without Stephen, but she’d come to rely on his help. She was too old to do many things for herself. Her children kept urging her to leave the house behind and move south, but she’d raised her whole family in that house. It was Peter’s house, the last piece of him she had. Ellie couldn’t bear to part with it, but she was beginning to believe she wouldn’t have any choice.

Ellie was determined to at least give surviving alone a real chance. She went to the supermarket, kept the house clean, and tried to do some repairs herself. While Ellie was cleaning up in the kitchen, she tripped over a towel that she dropped on the ground. Ellie fell hard, fracturing her hip in the process.

While Ellie tried to hide this at first, her family was quickly informed by the doctor, and this was the final straw for them. They wanted Ellie to move to a retirement home close to them. Ellie had always strongly objected to this, but at this point, the reality of the situation had set in. Ellie knew that what she was attempting was foolish and dangerous, and all she was doing was making her family worried. It was time to leave the home she had stayed in for 60 years of her life.

There was only one question left: What was she going to do with the house? Ellie knew she could try to sell the home, but it wouldn’t bring in much money. Besides, there was only one person entitled to it—Stephen. Ellie decided to bring a lawyer in to help her make sure the transfer of the home would go smoothly. She also wanted the lawyer to inform Stephen about everything because Ellie knew that she wouldn’t be able to get a word out if she was the one calling Stephen. She needed everything to be made loud and clear to him.

Ellie wasn’t sure if Stephen wanted her old house, but that didn’t really matter to her. What she knew for sure was that he wanted what she left behind inside for him. See, the house was only a decoy to hide what Ellie really wanted to give Stephen. But that had to be a surprise.

When Stephen got the call from the lawyer, he was extremely surprised and somewhat unsure about what to do now. He never expected Ellie to leave the house she loved so much, let alone give it to him. What did he do to deserve this? Or was something else behind Ellie’s gesture? Stephen was almost too generous.

Something in Stephen told him that maybe his parents had something to do with it. Could they have wanted him to live closer to home again? It had not been an easy time for Stephen ever since he moved back to the big city. He had been living on the streets. But even despite this disappointing situation, Stephen felt a lot more at home in the big city, and he already determined that he wanted to stay here. And with the money he could get from selling the house in his pocket, he could maybe get a better start here. At least that was the initial plan.

He called the lawyer back to tell him that he accepted the offer and wanted the house, but he also asked if he could help him sell it. But then the lawyer informed him that the only condition was that he would visit the house at least once. Stephen was somewhat taken aback and very confused by the strange condition. He wanted an explanation, but the lawyer couldn’t elaborate any further on it.

Stephen’s next move was to call Ellie. He, of course, wanted to thank her for giving him the house and wanted to know how she was doing. Why had she moved out of the house? But he also hoped she could give him an explanation for this strange condition. But Stephen couldn’t get a hold of her, no matter how often he tried. The phone just kept going to voicemail.

Suddenly, Stephen started to worry. Could something have happened to her? Was that why he was getting the house? Could it be an inheritance? He first thought that Ellie maybe wanted to restore the bond between him and his parents, and that’s why he had to show up. Still very unsure, Stephen decided he would travel to the house the very next day. The lawyer had paid for the transport to the house.

When Stephen arrives in town, he goes straight to Ellie’s house. He doesn’t want his parents to know that he’s there. When he enters the house with the keys he picked up from the lawyer, he’s surprised by the two new locks on the door. At first, it seems like there’s nothing else different about the place, but then he spots that there’s a large suitcase placed on the dining table.

Unsure if this was left here for him, he approaches the suitcase and quickly sees that his name was written on it. Stephen realizes this was Ellie’s doing, as he recognized the handwriting. When he opened the suitcase, he quickly discovered it was full of small envelopes. Stephen picked out one of the envelopes at random. It read “For groceries,” then a couple of others for fixing the gutter, for cleaning the kitchen, for taking her for a walk—things that Stephen had done for Ellie and Peter over the years.

But now comes the best part: In the envelopes was money, bills ranging from $10 to $20, and even $50. At some point after Stephen unpacked all of them and counted the money, he concluded it came out to a total of fifteen thousand dollars. Still in shock, Stephen decided to try and give Ellie a call again. To his surprise, she did pick up the phone this time.

Ellie explained that he had earned all this over the past two years but never accepted it. So this was her way of paying Stephen back for all the kindness and help. Stephen was brought to tears by this. This money would change his life forever, and on top of that, he was extremely relieved that Ellie was still alive. With the money, Stephen would end up moving to Anchorage and getting an apartment there. Having a somewhat solid base now, Stephen was able to completely turn his life around. He quickly found a job and started working himself up through the ranks. He also met his current girlfriend soon after, and the two are now living together and planning on starting a family. His relationship with his parents also improved.

Time passed, and he now goes to visit them once a month. And when he’s in town, he would always go past Ellie’s house to fix it up where needed. He still owns the house and rents it out to a local couple who are starting their own family there.