A woman who never received a gift from her late husband in their 28 years of happily married life is stunned when she opens her door one morning to find a gift from him. She opens the present to check what’s inside and learns the shocking reason why her husband never gifted her anything.

When Gracie Harper married Victor Blake, she was confident it was the best decision she’d ever made. Victor was a blue-collar worker who worked as a loader at a furniture company. He was supposed to deliver new furniture to a hotel where Gracie worked as a manager one morning, and that’s how they met.

It was undeniably love at first sight for them, and Gracie was the one who proposed to him. Victor’s kind demeanor and the fact that he never complained about his life, despite having very little, made Gracie instantly fall in love with him.

Two years into their marriage, Victor got a job as an assistant to the owner of a huge furniture firm. When the owner, 92-year-old Mr. Borris, died, he left his company to Victor because he didn’t have any heirs, and he was confident that a man like Victor would be the best man to run his company.

Victor certainly didn’t disappoint Mr. Borris, and the company rose to incredible heights under his leadership. The only person that he ever disappointed was Gracie.

As far as Gracie could remember, Victor had always been indifferent to her wishes and had never given her any gifts. Victor didn’t have much money when he first started working as a loader, so Gracie was fine with it. However, once he acquired a steady job and started making decent money, she never understood why he never gave her anything worth a single dime!

They lived in a large house with multiple servants. Victor contributed millions to charity, spent outrageous amounts of money on books and toys for children in orphanages, and their children, Mia and Ray, attended the best schools in town. When it came to other things, he spent money like water, but why didn’t he care about Gracie’s wishes? Did he no longer love her?

Gracie was upset about it. She waited several Christmases, New Years, Easters, birthdays, and anniversaries, but she never received anything from Victor. No presents. No attempts to even ask if she wanted something. No holiday surprises. Nothing.

Once, she met her friends at a restaurant for lunch and they all boasted about the expensive presents they received from their husbands. Gracie was drowning in embarrassment when Samantha proudly showed the diamond bracelet her husband had given her for Christmas and Olivia mentioned how her husband frequently surprised her with bouquets at her workplace. When they asked what Victor had done for her, she had to force a smile on her face.

“Well, you know how much Victor and I adore each other!” she said hesitantly. “We actually banned the practice of giving gifts because we don’t understand the concept of displaying love with material things,” she lied. “That’s all there is to it.”

“Is this some sort of prank?” She was dumbfounded as she took the parcel inside and began opening it.

Gracie’s friends found this as hard to believe as Gracie herself. On the inside, she just wanted to go back home as soon as possible because she didn’t know long she could pull off the lie.

When she got home that day, she’d made up her mind. She decided to try and hint to Victor that she wanted a diamond brooch for her upcoming birthday. After all, she always gave him presents on special occasions despite him saying, “There is no need for it, Gracie!”

So, after spending 28 years of her life with the man she loved the most and raising their children to the point where they were married and settled with their families abroad, Gracie reasoned that it was time her husband understood that she, too, desired gifts like everyone else.

A week before her birthday, she began dropping hints, which Victor, of course, didn’t pick up on – or so Gracie believed until she received a parcel from him after his death.

Unfortunately, Gracie learned Victor had stage 4 cancer just two days before her birthday and that he had only six months to live. She forgot about her own desires and focused solely on Victor’s health day and night. All she wanted was for him to be by her side and get better. However, Victor died seven months later.

After his death, Gracie couldn’t pull herself together. She isolated herself from the rest of the world, refusing to go to work, meet anyone, or do anything except sit for hours staring at her pictures with Victor, crying, and telling him how much he missed him.

Ten days later, on the morning of their wedding anniversary, a teary-eyed Gracie was sitting in the living room looking at Victor’s photo when she heard the doorbell ring. She opened the door and found no one there. But then she looked at her feet, where she noticed a parcel on her porch with a note on top that said, “From Victor to Gracie.”

“Is this some sort of prank?” She was dumbfounded as she took the parcel inside and began opening it. Inside, she discovered a note and a strange advent calendar with 28 boxes, each representing a year instead of boxes for dates. Gracie realized right away that the 28 years meant the years she and Victor had been married.

She opened the letter to read it and couldn’t stop crying.

“Dear Gracie,

Happy 28th anniversary, darling. I’m very sorry that I never gifted you anything all these years. You know how I had a horrible childhood and how, when my mother died, my father married a woman who only liked him for his money. She kicked me out of the house after my father died, taking all of the inheritance he would’ve left me.

I was just 17 then. I started my life with nothing except a house that, luckily, my stepmother couldn’t take away from me. I swore that day that I would never marry a woman who wanted me because of my fortune, so when I married you, I knew you were the right partner for me.

But you know that wealth changes people. We all know that. I watched how my stepmother only loved my father for his money, and I began to believe that all women are greedy and just desire money. So even after I became wealthy, I never considered your wishes. I am sorry. I realize this might not sound logical why I’ve never given a present to such a wonderful wife as you, but I agree it was my fault.

When you started dropping hints about the diamond brooch you really wanted, I got it. I’m not that stupid, Gracie, but I didn’t have enough time by then to fulfill all of your wishes.

In my last days, I wanted to redeem myself, and I asked one of my friends to help me put this little thing together for you. I hope you like it. Even after death separates us, I know I will always love you.

With love,

Your not so miser and ignorant husband,

Victor.

Day after day since then, Gracie would open one box from the advent calendar, starting from the one numbered 28th to the 1st, and found everything she wanted in them. The 28th one included the brooch, the 27th contained tickets to Paris – where they’d spent their honeymoon – the 26th had her favorite perfume, the 25th held a diamond pendant, and so on.

Gracie knew Victor wouldn’t return to her, but she could sense his presence in the thoughtful present he’d left behind for her.

What can we learn from this story?

• Judging the whole lot by one bad example isn’t fair. Because Victor’s stepmother was greedy and mistreated him, he began to believe that all women were like that.
• Sometimes there’s more to what the eyes can see. Gracie questioned Victor’s love because he never gave her gifts. In the end, the reason was far from what she thought.

If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a man who lies on the couch all day long and mocks his wife for the mess in their house until their mute son interferes.

This account is inspired by our reader’s story and written by a professional writer. Any resemblance to actual names or locations is purely coincidental. All images are for illustration purposes only. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone’s life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.