By Apple Wong

Every love story is beautiful. We have many kinds of love, such as family affection, friendship, and love between men and women. Furthermore, there is a kind of love that is selfless and does not ask for any reward. It is so worth being more cherished and appreciated. Here is a love story about my neighbors and a girl.

My neighbors are an elderly white couple with no others living with them, and they have been retired for more than 20 years. A young woman visits them every Christmas, but I saw her living with them this summer for a long time. Gradually, I became familiar with her, and she told me their story.

The young woman is 35 years old, single, and Asian American. She immigrated to the United States with her parents when she was 12. Her parents were working in a small Asian restaurant, and their working hours were very long. In order to take care of her, her parents always let her eat and do homework in the restaurant. The restaurant mainly served customers for takeaway orders, and there were only a few customers who would eat in the lobby, so she always sat in the lobby. One day, she met a couple there. Once when she was chatting with them, she mentioned that she was interested in playing the flute but that her parents did not have time to take her to class. What surprised her was that the couple actually suggested they could take her to the class. After that, they took her to class every week, and they also carefully wrote down notes about the teacher's advice and comments for her parents.

Later, she and her family moved to New York, but they kept in touch on the phone. When she graduated from university, her parents also didn't have time to attend the graduation ceremony, so the old couple flew from Florida to New York to attend the ceremony. They were very proud of her because her studies were very good. After graduation, she got a job in Boston as an actuary. Since then, she has had an income, so she can buy plane tickets to visit the couple in Florida. She mostly chooses Christmas to visit the old couple because the winter is very cold in Boston, and Florida's winter is so good. Since the pandemic, she can work at home, so she moved back to New York to live with her parents. However, this summer, the elder man's hand was injured, so she came here to take care of them.

What really moved me is that they are completely unrelated people and even different races, but the couple loves the girl as their own child. The girl always cared about them, just like her grandparents, and her parents are also very respectful to the couple. The elderly couple is very loving, doing almost everything together, every day, which is so sweet. They are so glad the girl can come to visit them every year. I think that spending time with others is the best way to express love. 

Apple Wong is an English language-student at Seminole State College in Sanford, Florida. She is originally from Hong Kong, where she has lived for 40 years. She decided to come to the United States with her two children, ages 8 and 10, to experience American education. She is planning to study at the university with her children.