Sarah was a talented girl but she was arrogant and her attitude towards her elders was very bad. She always talked rudely to her mother, so whenever her mother asked to help her, she pretended as if she had heard her and would do something else or even shut the door of her room.

One day Sarah's mother got sick. It made her little worried, yet she was as careless as before.

“Sarah, please bring me a glass of water,” called her mother who was having high temperature and was lying on the bed in her room.

Sarah groaned and frowned, “Ah, ok!” she said quite rudely to herself. Sarah was taking quite a long time in only bringing the glass of water, so her mother called again helplessly, “Sarah where are you?” Sarah appeared at the door, gave glass of water to her mother and turned, her mother wanted to say something but remained silent as Sarah had already left the room.

It was a normal routine for Sarah to avoid any chat with her mother, even if her mother wanted to ask something about her school, she never replied in a nice way. This was not all, she even misbehaved with other elders of the family.

The next day when Sarah went to school, she saw a new girl in her class. “This is Alina, she has joined this school today, say hello to her,” said the teacher.

“Hello!” said everyone in the class. Alina was very pretty and well-mannered girl but there was some sadness in her eyes which she could not hide. Sara wanted to be friends with her, so during recess she asked Alina about her family, hobbies, etc., she found they both had similar interests; this delighted her a lot. Then Sara asked about Alina's mother. For a moment the girl became silent and said “She's gone.”

First this phrase made no sense to Sarah but then Sarah asked “Where has she gone to?”
“To heaven,” said Alina sadly.

At this reply Sarah was shocked. “Oh... I'm sorry,” murmured Sarah, unable to speak any more. The whole day at school Sarah thought of poor Alina and then she thought about her own mother, and that how lucky she was to have her. This brought a new turn to Sarah's life.

She walked home from school as the wind blew, the trees rustled. Sarah thought about her poor mother and the way she behaved to her, Sarah could not stop her tears rolling down on the cheeks. Sarah remembered all those times when she talked rudely and never helped her mother or any other elder in the family.

On the way to home she bought flowers from a floral shop. When she entered the house, she saw her mother slowly walking towards the kitchen to cook something. Sara was ashamed and gave her mother flowers and said, “Mama, please sit, I want you to rest, I know I have been very rude to you, but I am really sorry for my behaviour. Please forgive.”

Her mother's eyes were full of tears, and she gave a warm hug to Sarah. It was the happiest day for her mother as well as for Sarah and after that day, Sarah and Alina became good friends as she was the one who had indirectly taught her to love elders and respect them.