The Unexpected Family
“What a grand place,” remarked Emily, her university classmate, as she wandered through all four rooms. “Youre quite the wealthy bride-to-be, arent you?”
Lillian sank weakly into an armchair. “Why did you come? The deans office knows I was ill.”
Emily flopped onto the old leather sofa, which let out a pitiful creak. Lillian winced. The house was filled with antiques her family had collected over decades. “Well?” she pressed, eager to lie downshe felt dreadful.
“Well,” Emily drawled, “our head boy, James, asked me to check on you. He heard you live nearby. You know how fussy he is. He wanted to know if you needed anything, since youre all alone now. Though in a flat like this” She couldnt hide her envy.
Lillian struggled to stand. “Thanks for dropping by, Emily. Tell James I appreciate his concern, but Im fine.” Emily rose reluctantly and followed her to the door but couldnt resist adding, “Id love to live in a place like this. Throw parties. Youre lucky.”
Lillian asked without much interest, “Lucky? Whos us?”
Emily blurted from the doorstep, “The blessed ones. Not of this world.”
Lillian shut the door with a curt, “Goodbye.”
She lay down, but sleep wouldnt come. As long as she could remember, she had lived here with her grandmother, Margaret. A strict woman, Margaret had drilled etiquette into Lillian from childhood, along with French, German, and Latin. At any moment, her grandmother might switch languages, expecting Lillian to respond flawlessly.
Lillian had no memory of her parents. Margaret spoke sparingly of her “unappreciative daughter,” who had borne Lillian with a man named Alexander. He had lured her mother into some commune, where, three years later, they perished in a firedetails Lillian was never given. She felt no grief; she hadnt known them.
Few visited their home: their seamstress, Beatrice; the elderly family doctor, Edward; Margarets friends, Eleanor and Archibald; and her long-time suitor, Peter, a retired jeweller.
Lillian grew up among them. Starting school had terrified hershed never heard such noisebut she adapted, learning to navigate both her grandmothers world and the one beyond their old flats walls.
Trouble struck unexpectedly. Margaret, who never bought from street vendors, suddenly brought home mushrooms. “I passed by and saw them. Reminded me of the mushroom soup my mother used to make.”
The soup was delicious, fragrant. Lillian had a second helping. Soon, Margaret fell ill, then Lillian. They called Dr. Edward, but his phone was disconnectedhe was at his cottage. Margaret refused an ambulance, trusting only him. But when she lost consciousness and Lillians vision blurred, she dialled emergency services, barely unlocking the door before collapsing on the threshold.
Now, with her grandmother gone, Lillian faced life alone. Her stipend wouldnt cover the flats upkeep. Peter helped, buying a few antiquesthough he underpaidbut the problem remained.
Then she recalled Margaret mentioning the flat had once been communal, later granted to her great-grandfather for his service. Lillian decided to take in lodgers. Shed keep her room and rent out the othersideally to decent women.
Ads brought a flood of calls, but no suitable candidates: migrant workers, families with children, giggling students asking if they could host parties.
Exhausted, she considered an agencyuntil she saw a young woman with two children on the street. The girl gnawed on a stale biscuit; the boy sobbed quietly in his mothers lap as she wept into her phone. “Michael, how could you? The children are starving. Ive no milk left. Where can we go? No one will take us inleast of all your friends. Let your Vera live with usjust give us a room. We wont disturb you. Michael, dont hang up”
Lillian couldnt walk past. “Excuse me,” she said softly, offering a tissue. “I overheard. Do you need help?”
The woman, Hope, sniffled. “Not methe children. My husband threw us out. Weve got nowhere to sleep, nothing to eat.”
An hour later, the children slept, fed, as Lillian listened. Hope was an orphan, raised in care. After selling her derelict childhood home for a pittance, shed rented a room from an elderly widowuntil the womans grandson, Michael, arrived. “Charming, but weak. He swept me off my feet. We lived in his flat, had our daughter, then our son. But then he grew tired of us. His new woman wanted the flat, so he threw us out.”
Lillian offered a room. “Stay until we figure something out.”
But plans changed. Next came Anthony, an elderly man evicted by his daughter-in-law after his wifes death. Shed tricked him into signing over his home, then remarried and cast him out. Lillian found him being shoved into the cold by a neighbour and took him in.
Lastly, she rescued Paul, a blind young man cheated by his guardian. She spotted him being taunted by youths, tossing breadcrumbs just out of reach. His lips trembled, but hunger overpowered his pride.
Now, Lillians “found family” thrives. Hope works as a shop cleaner; Paul minds the childrenno better nanny exists, spinning tales despite his blindness. Anthony, once a chef, turns simple ingredients into feasts.
Lillian doesnt regret a thing. Every evening, shes welcomed homenot by blood, but by those whove become her family.
Sometimes, the people we least expect fill the spaces in our hearts we never knew were empty.
