Came across this touching story during Christmas and wanted to share with everyone.
Joe Riquelme has had some great success in life, and, because of his financial success, he was able to fulfill a dream for the people who raised him, changing his parents’ lives in one instant, with one plain envelope.
Watch the video below, and see if you can make it through without tearing up.
Riquelme and his parents were enjoying what his parents’ believed to be a relaxing, post-gift Christmas day. The presents had been opened, and the family was sitting back to enjoy the day peacefully. But then, son Joe, who is the creator of an incredibly successful mobile app called Videoshop, which allows users to edit their mobile videos directly from their phones, pulled out a plain envelope from his pocket.
“Sometimes,” Riquelme says, “the best gifts come in the lamest packages.”
He had one more gift to give to his parents this year, and inside that plain envelope was a life-changer for his parents.
It’s for both his mom and his dad, he explains as his mother takes it, and his mother, still unaware of what she holds in her hand, says that the gift must be pretty special, since all the presents have already been opened. And she’s more right than she could even know! Riquelme’s mother opens the envelope and pulls out what appears to be a bill from Bank of America, but it has a note attached to it.
“Your house is paid off. Merry Xmas. – Joe” the note reads, with a checklist drawn on the side showing his parents’ accomplishments. Raise kids – check. College loans – check. Mortgage….check.
The parents — and whoever is video-taping the amazing moment — all began to cry.
But, as many others have already pointed out, one of the nicest things about this video is the honest affection and love happening in the Riquelme house even before the parents open their amazing gift. But it’s obvious that the parents of Joe Riquelme have done it right — not only did they raise a successful man, but they also managed to raise one who appreciated them enough to want to pay it backwards, rather than forwards, and gift the people who gave him his start in life.
