Older Man Buys Meal for Homeless Woman, Recognizes Daughter He Lost a Decade Ago — Story of the Day

Outside a supermarket, a homeless woman approached an elderly man and asked him for food. A few minutes later, he returned with a pack of food, but when the woman raised her head to thank him, he felt his heart pound. He instantly recognized who she was.

“Dad, you can’t stop me from moving in with my boyfriend. I am not a kid anymore!” Judith yelled at her father.

“Look, Judith. That boy is a bad influence on you,” her father, George, said. “You deserve to be with someone much better than him, sweetheart. Trust me.”

“No, Dad. You’re wrong,” Judith said. “I’m going to move in with him soon. I love him, and he has the same feelings for me.”

After George lost his wife a year ago, he found it difficult to raise his daughter alone. She was a rebellious girl who had just turned 18, and she never listened to George.

Every day, Judith would argue with him over something or the other, and George tried his best to teach his little girl what was right, but she never listened. She wanted to move out and live independently so her father wouldn’t interfere in her life.

The following day, George woke up and knocked on Judith’s door to wake her up for school. She would always scream, “I’m awake, Dad!” but there was no response this time.

“Judith? Are you up?” he asked.

When Judith didn’t open the door for a minute, George twisted the doorknob and pushed the door to see where his daughter was. To his surprise, she wasn’t sleeping in her bed.

“Are you in there, Judith?” he asked loudly and walked towards the bathroom. “Hey, Judith? Are you taking a shower?”

When his daughter didn’t respond, George opened the bathroom door, but Judith wasn’t there. Then, he went downstairs and looked for her in the kitchen and drawing room, but she was nowhere to be found.

Where could she have gone? George wondered. It was early in the morning, and he was sure all of Judith’s friends must have been preparing to go to school at this time. She wouldn’t be at any of her friends’ places, he thought to himself.

George left his house and went to the police station. “My daughter’s missing. The last time I saw her was yesterday,” he told an officer. After filing a missing complaint, George went to Judith’s school and asked her friends, but no one knew where she was.

After returning home with no clue of his daughter’s whereabouts, George waited for the police to find her. Days turned into weeks, but the police couldn’t find out where Judith was.

“She must have gone away to...