Oh Look It's Stuff Nobody Cares About

The Story Of Mercedes

When my mother was young she worked hard to keep her family alive. She worked in the early hours of the day and afterwards ran like the wind towards the only escape in life for her.School. She had a friend there called Mercedes.

Mercedes barely went to school. Her family was even worse off than my moms. She worked for hours on end with no time to waste. She had to take care of three children while her mother was at work. She was barely twelve when she quit school to look after her family.

My mother would often help Mercedes with her brothers. Mercedes was slowly growing weaker and as the years passed she barely talked or smiled. My mother was worried, not knowing what to do, she offered to help even more and tried to be there for her.

One day while cooking and selling things for money mercedes felt ill. She was dizzy and could barely see her surroundings. A few minutes later she fell unconscious.

At the age of 16 Mercedes died.

The causes are unknown but all the hard work and lack of sleep must have done no good to her.

My mom was devastated. Mercedes' family mourned for months. Without her, their family was falling apart.

Her three brothers were not cared for and in the midst of their childhood, their sorrow quickly turned into anger. The oldest, joined a gang. The middle child resorted to drugs. The youngest ran away and was never found.

Three years later the middle child died of a drug overdose.

The only brother left was the oldest. Their mother became an alcoholic and treated him horribly. My mom at the time had moved and had began college.

The oldest brother, named Sergio became one of the most feared gang leaders around. After one particularly violent night where his mother threw a vase at him he snapped and killed her with his bare hands.

Now you might be wondering why I'm writing this story here. It is because I owe my life to mercedes.

As my mom was walking down the streets to get home she was ambushed. The gang was about to rape her, kill her and throw her body in the nearby lake. She was screaming and crying and tried to fight back. Suddenly a boy no older than 18 yelled at the rest to stop. It was Sergio. He had recognized my mother and threatened each and every one of the men who had touched her to leave or else he would hunt them down and kill them in the most painful ways possible.

He then led my mom to a nearby coffee shop where he apologized for his language and asked her if she was okay. My mother was forever grateful and afterwards asked him why he did it.

His answer... "Because if I had left you to die Mercedes would have never forgiven me"

Thank you mercedes.
You're the reason I'm here.

A/N True Story.
Sergio died a year ago on January 8th. A knife was thrust into his neck at jail.