I think everybody agrees, that revenge stories are the ones that always attract the most attention. Sometimes it is for the wrong reasons. Well, in this story the revenge that was extracted was not only deserved but done in the calmest and most fitting way possible. It is a story that signifies that people are not as naïve as they look and that you can’t keep stepping over someone without getting what’s coming to you. The best word to describe this story would be “Karma”. Remember this word.
Our protagonist is a very loving and devout Christian, Edith. Edith was an old woman who had always found comfort in the arms of God and wanted to do her share of good in this world without expecting anything in return. She knew that once she went to heaven, she would be reward tenfold for all the things she had done. That’s why her good deeds were more than anyone can count. But no one could have prepared her for what she was about to go through.
She would always be the first one that attended worship, and the last one to leave. She was very keen on going to the church that she had devoted her life to. The Evangelical church in a suburb that was located in the South’s bible belt.
All of her weekends were devoted to supporting her church through any means possible. We have never heard of such a giving lady.
Whenever there was an event in the church you could be sure that she would be one of the organizers. Always there, ready with ideas energy, and affection. If she couldn’t help with organizing an event, for sure she would be helping any other way she could.
By cooking for the nursery of the church, cleaning the building, or helping to raise funds for the church. Who would betray such a devoted woman? And why?
Her favorite activity was on Sunday nights where she would teach bible study to the children of her church. She was a loving person and no one could see that more than her grandchildren.
The person that shared her story with everyone and made Edith famous was her granddaughter Daniella. Daniella would play a vital role in her grandmother's story.
Daniella went to a different church than her grandmother, but she was always there when she needed it. She had no problem with helping her beloved grandmother since she was such a good person, and whatever she does she does it out of love.
Whenever Edith asked for help with organizing something, or some errands for the church, Daniella was there to support her.
One time, when the pastor had forgotten some evangelical equipment when they were at a retreat, Edith called her granddaughter to help her. Together, they drove all the way to the church to get the equipment. It wasn’t until the next day that they arrived at the retreat. All that, without hearing a single word of gratitude from the priest.
Edith had noticed this behavior of the pastor but decided to say nothing. It was her church after all. But something pushed her over the edge.
Unfortunately, Edith had an accident. This accident forced her to stay in bed most of the time. When you are that old your body is not able to recover from injuries easily if it ever recovers. Unfortunately, the case of Edith was the one that never recovered.
She required constant care and she had to remain inside her house all the time. For 10 whole years, she wasn’t able to leave her house. That took a toll on Edith.
She wasn’t able to go to the church that she had devoted almost five decades of her life to. In the beginning, she didn’t let her confinement take the best of her, she still kept reaching out to the church, offering whatever help she could and trying to be as useful as she could.
Who could say no to such a giving person? Well, it appears there is someone that could say no.
Edith’s health deteriorated rapidly, as more and more health issues were coming up. It was clear to everyone that she didn’t have a lot of time left. Then when she entered hospice, everybody knew what it meant, and most of all, Edith.
She was ready for what was about to come, and that’s why she called in the pastor, to talk about her funeral arrangements. This was the meeting that created this whole story.
The pastors of the church completely ignored Edith. No matter how many times she tried to contact them and by what means, an answer never came.
It seemed like Edith had died for the church. But of course, the pastors hadn't really forgotten her and for a fairly obvious reason.
They kept accepting the generous amount of her pension that she was offering to them every month. With this, there seemed to be no problem.
Edith felt disappointed by what her church was turning into. Then, things took a turn for the worst.
After taking several days to answer, Edith’s pastor, James, didn’t even have the common courtesy to visit her himself. Instead, he sent over his subordinate McConnel.
Except for the fact that it was really inconsiderate from pastor James to not visit Edith in person, after all, she had done for his church, Edith didn’t have a good relationship with pastor McConnel. But what could she do?
When pastor McConnel came to see Edith, they jumped straight to the topic of the funeral. How it’s going to be, what kind of flowers, how many people, etc. the pastor was quickly agreeing to everything Edith was saying.
It seemed like he didn’t care for most of these. There was another topic that he wanted to discuss. A topic that shocked everyone in the room.
“Lay up your treasure in Heaven by remembering your church in your will.” This was the phrase that pastor McConnel said to Edith. Of course, she understood what that meant. He was practically asking her to give them some of the money that she had saved up throughout her life.
Edith’s husband noted that this wasn’t the time nor the place to talk about her will. The pastor pretended to agree, but he kept trying to steer the conversation towards the money. Edith couldn’t take it anymore.
She broke down to tears, realizing that the only thing that pastor McConnel cared about was her money. There was no gratitude she could expect from this church. She felt like everything she did was for nothing.
That is when her husband intervened and forcibly removed the pastor from the room. Edith had learned her lesson, now it was the time to teach one to the church. A few months later, it came to pass.
As it was expected, Edith passed away. Even though everyone was heartbroken they knew they had to move forward. Instead of a sad and depressing funeral, they decided to share many nice and funny stories about Edith.
Everyone was having fond memories of Edith. Out of all the people, two were not present, as per Edith’s request.
The pastors weren’t invited to the funeral. It seemed like Edith was hurt by the last time that they met, and decided to have her funeral be taken care of by another priest. This came as a surprise to the two pastors, but when they heard that they were invited for the reading of the will, all their worries went away.
It seemed like Edith couldn’t resist helping her favorite church. Or so they thought.
Many members of the family were gathered in the lawyer's office waiting for the reading of the will. Family and friends were all there. The two people that didn’t seem to fit were the two pastors.
But since it was Edith’s request, she must have left them something. The lawyer told them that in the will it was written, that Edith wanted the two pastors to sit in the front. Then the show began.
The lawyer started reading the will. It appears that Edith didn’t forget anyone. All her family members and her closest friends received something. When she didn’t give money, she gave something for the people to remember her.
It was clear that the rumors about her saving were true since there were some significant amounts of money being shared. The pastors were daydreaming of what they could do with their share. Then their time came.
Before addressing the pastors, the lawyer pulled up a crumbled piece of paper. Edith's family frowned. It was Edith's handwriting.
The members of her family started looking at each other in confusion. Nobody knew about this.
The lawyer started reading from a letter that Edith had written. “For the past 10 years, NOT ONE person has ever called me, come to visit me, or sent me a note to tell me that they cared about me.
Not one minister, not one deacon, not one of the church women, not one of the church members who I worked with for all of those years, loved dearly and thought were my friends.” The lawyer paused as the following expert almost made him tear up.
“I worked very hard for you when you needed me, for many, many years.
But when I needed you and your church, you all pretended that I didn’t exist.” The priest seemed annoyed by the letter and the good part hadn’t even begun.
Continuing, Edith made clear to the pastors, that their greedy behavior wasn’t as subtle as they thought it was. Edith always had a feeling that the only reason that the pastors would talk to her would be about money. So if it’s money they wanted so much, Edith felt obliged to help her beloved church with something.
To give them some of the money that they gave to her all these years. The total amount for the two pastors was…
2 cents. That is what Edith thought they deserved. They could do whatever they wanted with these 2 cents. The pastors were shocked.
They came there expecting to hear a generous donation to the church (and as a result to their pockets as well), but in the end, they got next to nothing. What could be worse than this embarrassment? The thing that Edith had prepared was worse than that.
She goes on to mention, that before Pastor McConnel’s visit, Edith and her husband had already decided to give 20% of her estate to the church. The lawyer goes on to name exactly the amount that they would get if they weren’t as greedy. At that moment the whole room burst into laughter, seeing the pastor’s jaws drop.
Not only she wasn’t giving them the money, but she was taunting them as well. Then, came the final blow.
Edith exposed something that was evident to the whole world but not to the members of the church. She said in the letter, that there were too many white Southerners in the church.
This was a personal attack against the pastors since they seem to have a very questionable relationship with anyone other than white people. Exposing this with her final words was a memento that all her family cherished.
In the end, Edith had decided to give the money that she was originally was going to give to them to another church. She had enough of their exploitation, and even though it was the church that she had been going to for 50 years, she couldn’t stand the thought of continuing to support such greedy people, even from the afterlife.
That was the last straw for the pastors, it was time for their exit. Easier said than done.
Edith had placed them in the front of the room on purpose. She knew that they wouldn’t stand for this embarrassment and they would want to storm out of the room.
That’s how it happened, after all the things that had been said against them, they tried to leave the room, but that was harder than they expected since the room was packed with Edith’s heirs. To watch them struggle between the people while leaving the room was a comical situation.
After this event, Daniella posted the whole story on Reddit, and like all good stories, it attracted a lot of attention. Thousands of commenters that could identify with Edith's struggle in life felt thankful that someone finally taught a lesson to the greedy pastors.
But there was one question that many people were asking Daniella.
What did the pastors do after the event? After this kind of ridicule, one would think that they would try to disappear from the life of this family. But it seems that they could just take it.
They made one last desperate attempt, and a testimony to their greed, to get what they thought was rightfully theirs. Their audacity would make even the most tolerant person want to vomit with disgust.
They visited Edith’s husband, trying to politely talk about the money that they thought they were owed. Much to their surprise, they didn’t get the reception they expected. Edith’s husband was clear from the beginning that he was going to honor her wife's wishes.
He also added that he totally agreed with the was she chose to share what was hers. The pastors had one last desperate attempt.
They claimed that if he wasn’t going to give to the church at least a percentage of what they were rightfully owed (that’s what they thought), they were going to call their lawyer and start the procedures to challenge the will. That was the real face of the pastors, that’s the lengths they were willing to go for money.
Edith’s husband had the comeback ready.
He reminded them, that if this will was challenged, then many of the documents surrounding the case would have to go public. For example, the letters exposing their racism and greed. If they wanted to go to court, even if they win the dispute, they were going to be condemned by public opinion.
He never heard from them again. Finally, they had disappeared.