A 9-year-old girl steals her mother’s wedding gown and flees with it, intending to sell it to a stranger and stop the wedding. But she regrets her decision when her mother becomes ill and is taken to the hospital.

Susan Peterson was just 16 when she got pregnant. She thought telling the good news to her boyfriend James would thrill him as she was, and they would raise their daughter together.

To her dismay, quite the opposite happened. James abandoned her and walked away from her life, claiming he didn’t want to care for them.

Susan, an orphan, was devastated when James left her. But the woman didn’t give up.

She worked hard, completed her degree, found a good job, and raised their daughter Ruth on her own.

However, Ruth was always curious why she didn’t have a dad. When she asked her mother about it, Susan didn’t hide anything from her. “Ruth,” she explained, “your father didn’t want to be with us, so he left us.

But we don’t need him. You and I can be happy without him, right?”

Ruth nodded her head, agreeing with what her mother said. However, as she grew older, she developed a dislike for men.

She believed that men were bad people who would abandon her mother again. So Ruth hated it when her mother dated.

One day, Susan came home with a man named Jeremy and told Ruth that she was dating him. Little Ruth didn’t like Jeremy.

In fact, she hated him and didn’t want him and Susan to be together. So at dinner, she dashed over to the seat next to Susan so Jeremy wouldn’t sit next to her.

When Jeremy left that night, Susan went to Ruth’s bedroom. “Honey.

I have to tell you something,” she told Ruth. “Jeremy and I like each other, and we want to get married. But we don’t want to do it without telling you.”

“I don’t like him, mommy,” Ruth snapped at her mother.

“All men are bad guys. He is a bad man, just like dad. He will leave us, and you will be sad.”

“Oh, Ruth,” her mother said as she hugged her.

“Jeremy isn’t like that at all. He’s a wonderful man who loves you. He came to our home because he wanted to meet you.

Mommy loves him, Ruth, just like she loves you.”

“But, mom,” Ruth objected. “I don’t want you to be sad.”

“Mommy will be happy with him, Ruth, and so will you. Won’t you like him if Mommy says she likes him?”

“Ok, mommy,” Ruth said quietly.

“If you like him, he must be nice. But I don’t want you to marry him.”