Man Fakes Death to Secretly Care For Ailing Old Mother — Story of the Day

A man realizes that the only chance for him to live the life he wants is to die — and leave his wife, wealth, and success behind.

Alfred Buchan looked out of the window and watched the blue shadow of the airplane slide over the glittering white snowfields. He was exhausted. Ever since his 76-year-old mother had become ill, he divided his time between Alaska and L.A.

He didn’t think he could do it for much longer. In fact, each time he returned from the tiny town he grew up in in Alaska back to Los Angeles, he asked himself why. It was time to make a change.

He started thinking about his wife. Pretty Samantha, who’d been so sweet when he’d first met her, but now spent all her time having something done to her face or body, or buying expensive clothes.

Alfred had loved her back then when he’d been a hopeful young agent with a handful of clients and she’d been a would-be starlet with not enough talent. But he’d loved her, hadn’t he? And she’d loved him.

Then came success, and money, lots of money. Suddenly, Alfred was representing the top Hollywood actors and actresses, he was at all the A-list parties with Samantha, and it had all gone to their head like fine French champagne.

Alfred had bought Sam a Malibu mansion and had the decorator put in a nursery, and that was their first quarrel. “They forgot to clear this out…” Sam said derisively, waving her hand at the pretty crib and soft toys.

Alfred wrapped his arms around her. “I was hoping the crib would inspire you…” he whispered in her ear smiling. But Sam pushed him away.

“Are you mad? Me, ruin my figure to give you rugrats?” she cried. “Don’t even think about it!”

“But when we were dating I told you I wanted kids, Sam,” Alfred said quietly. “When we could afford it, and when we were settled. We’re settled now.”

“Oh please,” Sam cried. “That was love talk! I said what you wanted to hear!”

As it turned out, Sam had said a lot of things Alfred had wanted to hear, for example, her attitude towards family. Sam was an orphan, and she’d expressed loved and admiration for Alfred’s mom, but now that she was ill, she wouldn’t see her.