When the Stars✨ Forgot to Shine🥺😭 ******************* The house was too quiet for children. Amara sat frozen on the edge of the worn-out couch, her eyes glistening with tears that refused to stop. Dede clung to her leg, too young to understand the depth of what had happened, only sensing the darkness that had taken over their once vibrant home. Chinedu, barely twelve, stood like a shadow beside the broken television, trying to be the man their father once was — but even he couldn't hold back the storm inside. Two weeks ago, their world shattered. Their parents — warm, loving, and full of dreams for their children — had gone out on a rainy night to fetch medicine for Dede’s fever. They never came back. A drunk driver, a slippery road, and in one moment, the children became orphans. At first, family came around with promises. Aunties and uncles cried loudest at the burial. But soon, the visits grew fewer, and the food supplies stopped. The house that once held laughter now echoed with hunger and silence. One by one, the relatives disappeared, each one unwilling to bear the burden of three grieving children. They were left alone.😭 Nights became battles — not just against hunger, but fear. Fear of the dark, of the unknown, of being forgotten. The neighbors gossiped, but no one helped. And so the children learned to survive on soaked garri and hope. But destiny has a strange way of visiting the forgotten. One evening, as Amara sat crying in the blue glow of the TV’s static, there was a knock. A woman with kind eyes and a soft voice stepped into their lives. She wasn’t family, but she had once known their mother — a childhood friend who had gone abroad and returned to find out about the tragedy. She didn’t ask questions. She took them in. She gave them food, clothes, and above all — love. She enrolled them in school and helped them heal. With time, the tears dried, the pain softened, and laughter returned in cautious whispers. They never forgot the sorrow. But they also never forgot that when the stars forgot to shine, fate lit a candle through a stranger’s kindness.❣️🕊️💞