Girl Abandons Her Grandma, Returns a Year Later and Sees Her House Totally Destroyed — Story of the Day

A young girl who aspires for fame and fortune as a pop singer steals her grandmother's earrings to travel to Los Angeles to become a star -- but she's in for an unpleasant surprise.

Belle Wilson was furious. She performed brilliantly in the school production of West Side Story where she tackled the role of Maria. The local TV station had hailed her as the home-grown Sarah Brightman.

Only one person wasn't heaping on the praise and raving about her voice: her own grandmother, Rosie Wilson. The one person Belle thought should be on the front row of a standing ovation wasn't. She said Belle needed more discipline!

Bella couldn't believe the state her grandmother's house was in. | Source: Shutterstok.com

"Discipline?" Bella screamed. "Did you even LISTEN to me sing?"

"Yes," said Rosie calmly. "Yes I listened, and for an amateur school production, it was perfectly acceptable. But if you want me to tell you it was a polished and inspired performance? It wasn't."

Tears of rage filled Bella's eyes. "I'm never good enough for you!" she screamed and slammed the door shut behind her as she flounced off into her bedroom. Rosie sighed and shook her head.

Perhaps she HAD been a little harsh on Bella, and if her granddaughter's dream had been to become a lawyer, or a doctor, or a beautician, Rosie would have praised her to the heavens.

Everyone told Bella she was going to be a star. | Source: Unsplash

But Bella wanted to be a professional singer. She wanted to sing on Broadway, be a star with a shelf full of Tony Awards and Grammys. Bella did have a lovely voice, but there were thousands of voices just as good.

As a vocal coach and a piano teacher, Rosie had seen girls like Bella come and go, and the heartbreak at the end of the journey. It wasn't what Rosie wanted for her granddaughter.

Bella could make it, she had the talent -- but she needed to work a lot harder than she was willing to. She would have to expand her repertoire and spend hours every day exercising and expanding the range of her voice.

Sadly, Bella had watched too many Hollywood movies in which the small-town girl walked into a studio and walked out ten minutes later with a contract and a guaranteed career as an international star.

Bella's grandmother Rosie told her she had to work harder. | Source: Unsplash

Rosie knew that unless she applied herself, Bella had no chance -- and even with hard work, there were no guarantees. She wished Bella would listen to reason...

In her bedroom, Bella cried herself to sleep, and when she woke up a few hours later, it was with an idea in her mind. She was determined to head to New York even before graduation -- she would go today!

"But...What shall I do for money?" She counted the small pile of money she'd been saving up. It wasn't enough to keep her for even a week in New York. Bella jumped up.

She peeked into the sitting room, into the kitchen, and her grandmother's bedroom. Good! She was gone. Bella ran into the bedroom and opened her grandmother's jewelry box.

Bella took her grandmother's sapphire earrings. | Source: Unsplash

In a tiny leather box inside were her great-great-grandmother's earrings. They sparkled in Bella's hands. Mine-cut diamonds and star-sapphires, her grandmother had said they were.

They were worth a lot of money. They would be more than enough to finance her dream. Then Rosie would see that Bella DID have the talent, the determination, and the grit to make it on Broadway.

Bella threw her things into a backpack and tucked the earrings away carefully. She called an Uber and headed for the bus terminal. Twelve hours later, she was stepping off the bus and into Times Square.

After gawking at the sights, Bella decided to find a pawnshop where she could turn her earrings into cash. When she unwrapped the earrings, the man started humming and took out a jeweler's eyeglass.

Bella gasped. "They're worth at least $30,000!" she cried angrily.

As soon as she got to New York, Bella went looking for a pawn shop. | Source: Unsplash

"Three thousand dollars," he said.

"Of course they are," the man said. "As soon as you show me proof of ownership, I'll give you $50,000."

Bella walked out of the shop with the three thousand dollars, and three weeks later, the money was gone. In those three weeks, Bella had hit every audition she could find, but she'd never even made it to the second phase of selection in any of them.

One of the nicest of the casting directors had told her her voice was 'nice' but lacked flexibility. She needed work, she told Bella, but she did have potential. Bella's cheeks burned. It was exactly what Rosie had said to her.

Bella found herself living on the streets, and was accosted several times by men who wanted to 'take care' of her. She knew where the girls who accepted the help ended up...

The director told Bella she wasn't good enough. | Source: Pexels

So Bella panhandled in the subway singing shown tunes a Cappella, going from station to station, collecting the coins that would see her through the day, and hopefully some to save up for her bus ticket home.

One day. Bella laughed until she cried when she realized where she was: the Broadway station. This was where her big dreams had brought her -- singing in a dingy station that smelled of urine. It was time to go home.

When Bella finally had enough money, she caught the bus home. All she could think about was going home to Rosie, but when she got there the house was gone. In its place was a pile of rubble.

Bella fell to her knees, gasping. All that was left of her home was a pile of dirt and rubble. Perched precariously on a heap of stones and broken floor planks was Rosie's piano, smashed to smithereens.

A tornado hit Bella's hometown. | Source: Pexels

Bella started sobbing and she just couldn't stop. "I'm sorry Gran!" she cried. "I should have been here for you. I'm so sorry..."

Then Rosie's next-door neighbor, her house miraculously intact, explained: "It was a tornado, honey. Hit us a week ago. Luckily, your grandmother wasn't home, but she ended up having a heart attack when she saw the state the house was in..."

Bella rushed to Rosie's side at the hospital and was shocked by how frail and sad her grandmother looked, but when Rosie saw her, her face lit up. "Oh, Bella," she sobbed. "I was so afraid..."

Bella cried in her grandmother's arms and confessed everything: the flight to New York, the underpriced earrings, the failed auditions. "You were right, Granma," she whispered. "I should have listened. I'm giving it up. No more dreams for me..."

Bella got her grandmother's earrings back. | Source: Unsplash

"But that wasn't what I said, Bella," cried Rosie. "You don't have to give up your dreams when you fail at the first try -- but you do have to be prepared to put in the work!"

Rosie's insurance paid out, and once the house was rebuilt, they moved back home. Bella had to work hard to get her grades up for senior year, and every day she worked with Rosie on her music.

Bella went to college to study music and started to post her original songs on YouTube. To her astonishment, she began to gather quite a following for her original songs -- and one day a producer reached out to her offering her a contract.

The first thing Bella did when her album debuted was to take some of that money and go to New York and get her earrings back from the pawnshop. "I got them back, Gran," she said. "And it's all thanks to you."

What can we learn from this story?

• Dreams don't come true without a lot of hard work and discipline. Bella learned that she had to put in the work if she wanted to be a star.
• Cherish the people who tell you the truth -- they are your best friends. Everyone told Bella she was the best -- which was what she wanted to hear -- but only Rosie told her what she needed to hear.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about three women who receive an inheritance from their grandmother and it teaches them a hard lesson about fairness and the wages of greed.

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