I never told my daughter about my job. I work in a garbage yard. Cleaned drains and manholes. I didn’t want my daughter feel ashamed of me. Whenever she asked me about my job, I told her that I worked in an office. Every day I went out of the house wearing a suit. I changed my clothes before starting my work. Before back home every day I took shower in public bathrooms. My daughter had no idea that her dad was a laborer. I wanted her to go to school. I don’t want her to live a life like me. I was never respected for the work I did. I was always humiliated because I was not educated. I didn’t want that happen to my daughter. I started working day and night to send my daughter to school. I couldn’t afford a new shirt or a new shoe for myself. But I made sure that she had her new uniforms & books every year. I never visited the parent’s teacher meetings.

My daughter always wanted me to go with her. But, how could I? I was just a cleaner. I won’t get along well with other parents. As time passed, my daughter grew up. She was about to get enrolled in a university. One day, before her admission, I counted all my savings. I was not enough to pay her admission fees. I didn’t have any relatives to ask for a loan. That day I felt devastated. I had failed my daughter. I was hopeless as I knew I won’t be able to send her to university.

I went to work that day but couldn’t focus on work. I stopped working an sat in the corner while my co-workers kept working. They didn’t even look at me or talked to me. A whole day had passed and it was time for me to return home. I didn’t know what to tell my daughter after returning home. How can I tell her that she won’t be going to university? Before leaving, all my co-workers gathered in front of me. They asked me, “Do you consider us as your brothers?” I was speechless, I didn’t know what to answer. Before I could answer, they handled me their one day’s income. When I felt hesitant to accept that money, they replied “our daughter has to go to college.” “We can starve for one day, but we can’t see our daughter’s dreams being destroyed.” Tears rolled down my face as I accepted the money. I didn’t take shower before go home that day. I go home in my dirty clothes.

“What happened to you?” my daughter asked.

I told her everything that day. I revealed to her who his father really was. My daughter hugged me and cried so hard that day. She is an Engineer now. She has a great job and she doesn’t let me work now. She never hides from anyone about the fact that her dad was a cleaner. Instead, she tells it to everyone proudly. Every week, she even visits the place where I worked and feeds my ex-co-workers. One day, one of them asked her, why she does that? She replied, “you all starved for me one day, I pray to god that I can feed you every day.”

I realized one thing that day. I was never poor. Because I had a daughter with a heart made of gold.

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