Kicked-out Mother Moves To Late Granny’s House, Checks Mailbox & Realizes She’s Rich

The Long Road to a Forgotten Home

When Janet Kavaná’s husband deprived her and their three young children of a home and food, the woman had only one place to go: her mother’s former country house.

But when she got there, something surprising from the past awaited her. The car rocked with each sharp turn in the dirt road.

The Kavaná family had traveled to a small country town during the summer. There wasn’t much in the way of urban infrastructure, but the scenery was stunning.

Along the route, there were many lakes and other lush vegetation. Janet knew the place well and was surprised to find that the roads had changed little over the years.

Her three kids were sleeping in the backseat and weren’t particularly interested in what was happening outside the window. They were all exhausted from the trip and everything they had been through over the past few months.

Janet drove the rental car while fighting back the tears. It had been months since the woman had been able to keep her head straight without the help of medication.

She only prayed to God that her children would not notice her desperation. Then Janet pulled into a driveway.

“Here we go, Rick, Nate, and Milla!” “This is it,” the mother announced, recapturing their attention.

Right in front of them was an old, seemingly deserted house. It was obvious that nature was in charge of beautifying the area because wildflowers were growing everywhere, and the weeds were a little high.

“Mom, it looks like a house from a horror movie,” Rick said.

“Oh, that’s scary!” Taking a step back, Milla reacted.

Janet knew that the kids wouldn’t be interested in the location right away, but she hoped that they would see how important it was.

“It’s only temporary, right? We’ll figure it out,” the mother said as she prepared to close the car, pick up her bags, and walk to the door.

Even though they were scared, the kids went ahead and ran around. Janet was counting on her children’s curiosity and the chance to go on adventures to keep them busy after all the terrible things they had been through.

Janet saw the old mailbox on the property once she got over the old fence. The sight of it brought back many good and surprising memories from her childhood.

Rick, the oldest son, was checking out the house, which looked like it had been abandoned for a long time. Nate and the youngest, Milla, were looking for bugs and picking flowers.

“There’s a bee!” Nate yelled.

“There’s another one right here, too,” Milla said.

Nate and Milla looked dazzled, and that gave faith to Janet’s plans. She thought,

“If Matthew hadn’t been so careless, we wouldn’t be out here in the middle of nowhere and broke, but that’s life.”

She kept her head up and accepted the burden she was carrying because she knew the breakup was necessary and best for the kids. Ten years of marriage had been very intense.

When Janet first met Matthew, she was 23. He was a highly ethical and prosperous businessman.

If necessary, he stayed late at work or used part of the weekend to catch up on spreadsheets and payments. Even so, he would always sit next to her in the evening, crack open a beer or a whiskey, and unwind after a day of stress at the office.

It gave her security; it seemed that Matthew managed to balance his life. Their dating lasted two years, and she was also able to establish herself professionally.

They were not rich or millionaires but had an enviable income in their circle of friends and family. When everything appeared stable, they decided to marry.

After the party, Matthew honored a promise he had made to the company’s employees: they would each receive a liter of whiskey as a memento. It was the groom’s favorite drink and a sign of the success of his business.

This wastefulness started to attract people with a lot of power, but these people had habits that would hurt Matthew. He was already gambling and placing small bets in casinos before the birth of their first child, Rick.

When he lost, he was frustrated, but he always claimed that the amount was insignificant. And when he won, which wasn’t often, he told his family and coworkers that he could predict what would happen.

By the time his youngest child, Milla, was born, he was already a high roller. Janet became concerned because he was risking substantial sums of money.

She sometimes quarreled with her husband about this, but he said the family’s finances were fine because he knew what he was doing and was a responsible man. Janet was afraid, but it didn’t take away Matthew’s reason.

After all, there was never anything missing for the children and the couple at home. Also, he continued to wake up early every day and work hard at work.

“Betting is my hobby, entertainment for me to relax, my dear,” he would say.

“I may lose a few bucks, but when I get it right, it will be good for everyone!”

The fact is, if he had known that such a habit would destroy his family, perhaps he would have listened to his wife. Janet’s mother, Phyllis, knew about Matthew’s bets and didn’t think it could end well.

She couldn’t fully express her misgivings because, of course, the money was her son-in-law’s, but she feared that a disaster was likely and it would impact both her daughter and her grandchildren.

“What are you going to do if one day he loses everything, my daughter? Are you going to support him with our family money?” she once asked Janet.

“He will not lose everything. The gambling money is not the money that keeps this family going, Mom,” she replied.

Phyllis said that she prayed she was right. During one of his gambling binges, Matthew put down a lot of money and won a jackpot.

He took his whole family to Disney with the prize money to show everyone that this was just a hobby and that he had everything under control. They were four enchanted days for Janet, Rick, Nate, and Milla, who were still very young.

Janet thought that if her husband gave them a surprise like that, it must be true that their business and personal money were safe. The problem was that after Matthew won the jackpot, he felt even more sure of himself and began to bet more and more.

To his gamblers’ logic, this made sense; the more money he put at risk, the larger the reward would be. Except that Matthew never won again.

On the contrary, he lost several times in a row, always thinking he would win the next time. His losses got so bad that he had to borrow a lot of money from his business.

He had to fire eight high-level employees at once and announce an emergency “restructuring” to avoid publicly admitting that his gambling addiction had caused him to bet money he didn’t have. Mathew had to sell his whole share of the business to his partner so that he could pay his bills at home.