A 3000 Yen Check

No. 194 The story introduced this time

When I was in elementary school and my family was extremely poor, I was envious of my friends who received Christmas presents every year, so I begged, 'I want a Christmas present too.'

The story introduced this time is a post from someone who says that when they were in elementary school, their family was extremely poor and they had never received a Christmas present, so one year they begged for one, and their mother gave them a handmade check as a desperate measure.

*Regarding the posting date*
summary site I confirmed the post from December 26, 2011, from a copy-paste, but I apologize if that is incorrect.

There was a YouTube video based on this story, so I will introduce that as well.

Post content

When I was in elementary school, my family was extremely poor and I had never received a Christmas present.

I was already at an age where I didn't believe in Santa Claus, but I was envious of my friends who would get excited every year about what they were getting (or had received), so that year I begged and begged for a present myself.

My mother had a troubled look on her face.

Thinking about it now, we were barely scraping by to make it through the year, and there was no way we had any extra money.

But on the morning of the 25th, I found a red envelope by my pillow.

When I opened it, there was a check inside.

The face value was 3000 yen.

Of course, it wasn't real.

It was handmade by my mother.

But it was neatly printed with things like '[Our family name] Bank,' and to a child's eyes, it looked quite authentic.

It was a desperate measure by my mother who couldn't afford to buy a present, but I thought a check was so cool and I was incredibly happy.

More than anything, I was happy that I had received a Christmas present.

It was too precious to cash in, so I never did, and eventually I forgot about its existence and that was that.

Recently, I suddenly remembered it and asked my mother with a laugh, 'You calculated that I wouldn't come to cash it in, didn't you?'

Then my mother took out a small envelope from the back of the dresser.

It was written in pencil as 'For a check,' and inside there were 1000 yen bills and a 500 yen coin, totaling 3000 yen.

They told me that although they couldn't make it in time for Christmas to buy a present, they had been preparing it so I could come and exchange the check whenever I wanted after that.

Living day to day as we were, I realized how hard it must have been for them to save this 3000 yen without spending it back then.

It would have been perfectly fine if it had bounced.

Thinking that made me cry.

YouTube

There are videos based on this story, so I will introduce a few.
*It seems there are other videos besides the ones introduced here.

/Yukkuri tells 1-minute tear-jerking 2ch stories (Channel)

(2ch) Tear-jerking and heartwarming 'LAN' (Channel)

In closing

My note articles are not intended for profit.
I am simply writing these articles because I want to share stories that made me cry with everyone.

However, if there are any issues such as 'copyright,' please let me know and I will delete them.
Also, the images posted were provided by Irasutoya, Minchirie, and Illust AC.

Thank you for taking your time to read until the end.