I\u2019m Samantha \u2014 a teacher and head of the children\u2019s art club. Rory\u2019s mother was one of the parents who always came early to pick up her son after class. But one day, something was different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She looked tired but smiled, came up to me and said:
\u201cMiss, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She smiled again, waved goodbye, and left.
In the teachers\u2019 room, I heard some colleagues whisper, \u201cShe\u2019s fighting stage-3 cancer.\u201d But Rory never spoke about it. He always smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During art class, he painted a family: himself, his mother, and a big bright sun. Next to it he wrote, \u201cI don\u2019t want my mom to leave.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I burst into tears. That picture still hangs in my classroom today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One day, during recess, the school gates were surrounded by ambulances. I heard that one of the parents had fainted and been rushed to the hospital. \u201cWhere\u2019s your mother, Rory?\u201d I asked, kneeling beside him. My heart broke. I hugged him tightly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s go home,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he shook his head. \u201cI don\u2019t have a home anymore,\u201d he said softly, looking at his crumpled drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later that evening, social workers arrived to help. But Rory, broken and pale, whispered the words I\u2019ll never forget: Weeks later, something miraculous happened. Rory\u2019s father, who had been working abroad, returned and took his son home. I\u2019m Samantha \u2014 a teacher and head of the children\u2019s art club. Rory\u2019s mother was one of the parents who always came early to pick up her son after class. But one day, something was different. She looked tired but smiled, came up to me and said:\u201cMiss, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sick.\u201d She smiled again, waved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1204,"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1202\/revisions\/1204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wowzy.site\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
When I arrived, I saw Rory sitting alone in the corridor, crying silently, clutching a small crayon drawing in his hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShe\u2019s sleeping. They said she\u2019s sleeping,\u201d he whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy mom didn\u2019t lose the fight. She taught me how to be brave.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
They planted flowers together near the playground where Rory used to wait for his mom.
Each spring, the flowers bloom again \u2014 and every child who passes by stops to smell them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"