For nearly eight years, I rented out a flat to a couple, both originally from out of town. The man worked at a car garage, while the woman was a shop assistant. The rental income covered the utilities for both my own flat and the one I let out, with a little leftover for petrol. Our relationship as landlord and tenants was strictly business, and over the years, I had no complaints about them. Then, last year, the young woman called me in tears. She explained that a tumour had been found in her breast. After struggling to get a doctors appointment and waiting endlessly for tests, she was diagnosed with stage three cancer. When her partner found out, he left her. She had no one to turn tofriends, yes, but none particularly close or well-off. With rent now impossible to pay on her own, she asked for two weeks to move out, planning to return to her village where there was at least a small hospital. Shed have the surgery in the city but follow-up care back home.
I knew shed struggle to survive thereour hospital was far better equipped. So I told her she could stay rent-free during treatment. If she could manage the utilities, good; if not, Id manage without. She wept with gratitude. Her mother came from the village to help after the surgery, which went well. She endured chemotherapy and eventually went into remission.
While they stayed, they paid what they could toward bills, insisting they couldnt take full charity. What stung most were the comments from those who knewcolleagues, friends, even my own mothercalling me a fool for “throwing money away” when I couldve found new tenants. Had people really grown so heartless, so blind to anothers suffering? As for her ex, he never returned, cruelly taunting that shed be “a freak with one breast.” Shes lovely, and hearing that broke my heart.
Now, shes healthy, under regular check-ups, and doing well. She kept working, continued renting from me, then met a new partner. This summer, theyre marryingIm a guest of honour. By autumn, theyll get a mortgage and move on. Financially, those months were tight, but I didnt go under. And in the end, helping someone keep their life and health mattered far more than the money. Kindness, after all, is a currency that never truly devalues.
