A man abandoned by his parents as a young child in an orphanage discovers them in a retirement home fifty-seven years later and is forced to make a life-altering decision. Brendan Wallace’s first memories were of being hungry and scared, with furious voices shouting about him. The hands that should have been gentle with him were rough instead.
Brendan recalls slipping out of his small bed and toddling toward the sound of music and laughter, his diaper wet and heavy. Then the laughs stopped. “For God’s sake, we need to get rid of that brat!” a woman exclaimed. It was his mother. When his mother was tired and pleased, she would allow Brandan to cuddle up to her warmth, making him feel safe and satisfied. Brendan’s parents were generally irritated by his presence.
It would be several years before an adult Brendan realized why tiny Brendan was so miserable and undesired. His parents were both affluent and lived off trust funds. When Brendan was born, they were living on a commune. Bitterness is poison, and forgiveness is the only remedy. It was the 1960s, and the period of peace, love, and flower power was in full swing, but Brendan’s parents did not love children. Margaret Wallace was startled and upset when she found out she was pregnant.
She was horrified since she had no intention of ever becoming a mother, and enraged because it was far too late to prevent Brendan’s arrival. Fortunately for Margaret and Brendan’s father, Rafe, the commune was full of motherly ladies who adored babies and cared for young Brendan.Brendan wasn’t supposed to be Brendan; they wanted a more romantic name, such as Moonchild, but the man at the register noticed Margaret’s bare feet and love beads and asked for her father’s name.
“Brendan,” she had responded. And the man registered Brendan as Brendan, a respectable and useful name. Margaret and Rafe lived at the commune until Brendan was nearly three, when they chose to leave. They were considering following a new guru who was extremely popular. The man, an Indian aesthete, had delivered a speech in San Francisco, and the couple had been impressed by his notion of living a meaningful life.
The guru maintained an ashram in India, and Margaret and Rafe knew it was where they needed to be. But what do we do with Brendan? They couldn’t possibly accept him…”We’ll leave him at an orphanage,” Margaret remarked. “Isn’t that where they take care of children?” Rafe was less convinced. “How about Oliver Twist?” I don’t want anything like that to happen to the child.”
“Nonsense!” Margaret exclaimed. “I’m confident everything will be OK! And he won’t be poor, right? He’s had his own trust money since birth, and he’ll be alright once he grows up. “He’ll have everything he needs.” So three days later, Margaret and Rafe walked into a convent-run orphanage on the outskirts of San Francisco and abandoned three-year-old Brendan in the foyer.
They just left him with his birth certificate and the documentation for his trust money.Brendan compared the nuns to angels, with their white headdresses that resembled wings. They took him, cleaned him, treated the severe rash that had tormented him from birth, and fed him. Brendan was surrounded for the first time by people who loved, cared, and were gentle. He grew into an active, joyful little child at the orphanage, yet he also fell into deep silences at times.
As he grew older, he gained a better understanding of his foggy memories. He learned about his trust fund and the wealth it would provide him when he grew older. He knew his parents had not abandoned him out of poverty or desperation. The majority of the children in the orphanage WERE orphans, but a handful had been put there because their parents could no longer support them, so they wouldn’t go hungry. But Brendan’s parents had been rich…
When Brendan turned 18, he left the orphanage and the nice nuns to attend college. The trust fund had matured, and there was enough money to pay for college or perhaps to support Brendan for the rest of his life without working. But Brendan wanted to build bridges, such as the San Francisco Bridge. He wanted to build bridges that appeared to reach heaven.
In college, he met Susan, a beautiful artist, and they fell in love. They were married after graduation and had two children. Brendan felt such a rush of love as he cradled his children in his arms for the first time that he couldn’t believe his own parents could have abandoned him. His resentment and fury for them increased alongside his love for his children. “They never loved me the way I love Meg and Brian,” he explained to Susan.
“They never loved me at all!”Brendan was a grandfather when he found out about his ‘parents’. The law company that handled his trust fund contacted him and informed him that his parents had finally exhausted their own trust monies. “They’re indigent, Mr. Wallace,” the lawyer added. “We’ve paid out the last of the trust fund to the nursing home they are staying in, but in six months they will be homeless.”
“Why are you calling me?” Brendan inquired coldly. The man paused. “Well…they are your parents,” he replied. “We felt you should be told…And maybe some natural emotions…” “They weren’t natural parents,” Brendan explained. “I have no feelings for them unless it’s a healthy disdain.”But the lawyer’s call continued bothering Brendan, tugging at his conscience. “I’m sixty years old, and I owe them nothing!” he informed Susan. “So why do I feel like this?”
“Because you’re a good man,” Susan explained gently. “And good men do the right thing…”So two weeks later, Brendan and Susan drove down to the old age home where Margaret and Rafe were now living. They were no longer the long-haired, lithe, and attractive flower children of their youth. They were ancient and did not age gracefully. The two were taken aback when a carer informed that their son would be visiting.
Margaret rose to her feet and approached Brendan, arms extended. “Brendan, my baby!” she cried, but there were no tears in her little, sparkling eyes. Brendan slipped out of her hold easily. “Hello, mother,” he said. “I’m surprised you remember me, I certainly wouldn’t have recognized you at all.” Rafe smiled, revealing that most of his teeth were missing. “Now, my boy, let’s not dwell on the past…” he told me. “We are really glad to see you! Life has not been easy.”We are not who we used to be.”
“Please, my son,” Margaret murmured. “Don’t abandon us!” “Abandon you?” Brendan inquired. “You mean to do to you as you did to me?””We left you the money!” exclaimed Rafe. “You weren’t poor, as we are now!” “You didn’t leave me the money,” Brendan stated quietly. “The trust fund was established automatically by my grandfather’s estate the moment I was born. You had nothing to do with this.
But you know what? I will not abandon you, not because you deserve it, but because I am a better person than either of you. I understand the concepts of love and compassion. I forgive you, even if you don’t deserve it, and I promise to help you. You can have the money!” Rafe was in tears as he glanced at Brendan. “We’re so alone, my boy.What can we buy with our money right now? More lonely days? Please…”Brendan nodded. “So now you understand what I felt,” he told me.
“As a child, all I wanted was to be loved and treasured. Do you believe that money was any consolation? Now that you’re older, you want to be liked and spend time with your family. “It’s fine, father, mother. I’ll take you home with me. “You will not die alone.” Brendan took Margaret and Rafe home with him and hired a caregiver for them. Margaret enjoyed talking to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, telling them stories of their chaotic days in the 1960s, and playing guitar with Bob Dylan around the campfire.
Rafe would sit next to Brendan whenever he could, clutching his hand in his feeble claw. Brendan donated the vast riches that had accrued in his trust fund to the orphanage that had reared him and demonstrated compassion and caring.