Debbie, living in a quiet neighborhood, becomes close to her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Jenkins, and begins to care for her. But when Deb’s mother has to undergo surgery, she has no option but to go home and care for her mother… only for her to receive a horrible phone call from Steve, Mrs. Jenkins’ son, accusing her of not doing enough.
Look, I didn’t want revenge on anybody, especially not for just being kind to an elderly neighbor.
I live in a quiet neighborhood, and my next-door neighbor, Mrs. Jenkins, is an 82-year-old widow. She’s frail, lonely, and honestly, sad. It’s like she’s been forgotten by her own family. Her only son, Steve, lives just 20 minutes away but rarely visits.
Whenever I saw her on the porch, she seemed so lost, staring off into the distance. My heart went out to her, so I started helping where I could.
For over a year, I’ve been running small errands. Groceries, appointments, clearing her driveway of leaves in the fall and snow in the winter.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Debbie,” she said to me one morning after I dropped off her groceries, including some freshly baked bread for her breakfast.
“I’m here for anything you need, Marlene,” I said.
Honestly, it wasn’t much, but I felt good knowing that I was helping. Especially since her real family was so absent.
“Steve?” she said one day when I asked about him. “That kid means everything to me, but I know I don’t mean as much to my son. It’s okay. You’re here.”
She would always smile like I was her favorite person.
This man, who barely knew his mother’s daily life, had the audacity to accuse me of not doing enough.
But things took a dark turn when I had to leave town for a few weeks. I couldn’t help it, my mother was in the hospital after being diagnosed with fibroids and cysts that needed to be removed.
I had to be there with her. There was no way about it.
“I’m coming, Mom,” I said. “Don’t you worry about a thing.”
“But, Deb,” my mother whined. “I don’t want to disturb your routine. Dad’s here, I’ll be fine with him.”
“Mom, I work from home. I can work from anywhere,” I said sternly. “And anyway, Dad’s idea of taking care of someone is making chicken noodle soup. That’s pretty much it. You’re going for invasive surgery. You need me.”
Before I left, I stocked Mrs. Jenkins’ house with groceries, made sure that she had everything she needed, and asked our neighbor Karen to check in on her from time to time.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can, Marlene,” I said. “Don’t you worry about a thing. And I’ve asked little Josh to come over and check your mail. He knows that if there’s anything in your mailbox, he has to bring it right to you.”
“Thank you, darling,” she said. “You’re too good to me.”
I thought I’d covered all my bases.
Ten days into my stay with my parents, my phone rang while I was cooking dinner. I didn’t recognize the number, but I picked up anyway.
“Debbie?” the voice snapped when I answered. “Are you the neighbor who’s supposed to be taking care of my mom?”
It was Steve. Mrs. Jenkins’ son. The man who barely showed up for his own mother.
For a second, I got nervous, hoping that nothing had happened to her.
“I just got a call from my mother,” he continued, not even stopping for me to speak. “She ran out of milk. And you’re out of town? Why didn’t you make sure she had enough before you left?”
I was absolutely floored. This man, who barely knew his mother’s daily life, had the audacity to accuse me of not doing enough.
Me?
“Steve,” I said, trying to remain calm. “I’m out of town because my mom is in the hospital. This is where I need to be. I stocked your mom up before I left. And I spoke to Karen, our neighbor, to check on her.”
Instead of apologizing or offering to help like any normal person, he shot back.
“Well, that’s just not good enough, Debbie. If you’re going to take care of my mother, then you need to do it right! I can’t be running around getting her things whenever you drop the ball.”
I almost screamed. The audacity of this man was astounding.
How could he accuse me of dropping the ball when I’d been doing everything for her? Especially while he sat back and did nothing!
I took a deep breath.
“Steve, she’s your mother. You can’t expect me to do everything for her while you’re right there, and do nothing! Maybe you should help her out for once.”
His response was just sad.
“You’re pathetic,” he said. “You don’t even do that much for her.”
Before I could retaliate, I just cut the call. I didn’t want to say anything worse, and I also didn’t want to risk it getting back to Marlene and upsetting her.
Later, as I sat with my mom in her hospital room, I couldn’t stop replaying that conversation. By the time I got home, I knew exactly what I needed to do.
“Go home, honey,” my mother said when I told her about Steve’s phone call. “I’m doing just fine, and my progress is great. The doctor is really happy with me. I told you, Dad and I will be fine!”
I really didn’t want to leave, but I missed my own home. And I missed working from my own space, too. So, I left a few days later.
When I got back, the first thing I did was check on Mrs. Jenkins. Thankfully, she was fine. It turns out that Karen had taken care of the milk situation, and Mrs. Jenkins had no idea about the chaos Steve had stirred up.
“What? Really? He said that?” she exclaimed, shocked.
Steve had to step up. He was not happy about it. Not at all.
As glad as I was that Steve hadn’t fed her any stories about me, I wasn’t going to allow him to get away with this.
The next day, I gently told Mrs. Jenkins that I wouldn’t be able to help her as much anymore.
“I have other commitments, Marlene,” I said sadly. “I have to check on my mother more often, too. She’s going to need me for the next few weeks.”
She looked disappointed, but she reassured me that she understood.
A few weeks went by, and Steve had no choice but to step up. Naturally, he wasn’t happy about it. Sometimes, as I worked from my living room, I could see him showing up to his mother’s house. He always looked irritated, like running an errand for his mother was the biggest burden anyone could have placed on him.
When I did visit Mrs. Jenkins next, she smiled and told me that she was relying on Steve more.
“I call him for everything,” she said. “Milk, teabags, and even help with the gutters.”
One afternoon, Mrs. Jenkins asked me to help her sort through some old papers. That’s when we stumbled upon her will.
Naturally, Steve was listed as the sole beneficiary.
“It’s a shame that Steve cannot spend more time with you,” I said casually. “You know, with work and whatnot.”
“I know, dear,” Mrs. Jenkins sighed. “But he’s been like that. Sometimes I think he only sticks around for what I’ll leave him.”
That was all the confirmation I needed.
“You know, Marlene,” I said. “You don’t have to leave everything to Steve. It might be nice to donate some to charity or leave something for the people who have always been there for you. That’s a sweet gesture. Think about it.”
“You’re right, Debbie,” she said. “I’ll think about it.”
A week later, Mrs. Jenkins updated her will. Steve still got his share, but she also included several charities to get vast portions of her estate. She left a little something for me, too, though I didn’t ask for it.
It wasn’t about the money. It was about showing Steve that neglect and greed have consequences.
When Steve found out, he stormed to my house, knocking furiously on my door.
“You convinced my mother to give away my inheritance? You manipulative little…”
I cut him off before he could finish his sentence.
“I didn’t convince her of anything. Maybe if you spent more time with her, you’d know what she really wanted.”
Steve spluttered, his face turning red. He shouted a few more insults and stormed off, but I could see it in his eyes.
He knew that he had lost.
Now, the lovely Mrs. Jenkins is happier than ever, and I’m taking her to the ballet later this week. Steve is sulking, likely regretting all the time he wasted.
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And as for me? I’m happy knowing that Mrs. Jenkins isn’t being taken advantage of by Steve.
Sometimes, the best revenge is just letting someone realize their own failure.
What would you have done?
MARISKA HARGITAY’S MOM AND DAD WERE WELL-KNOWN ACTORS. THEIR NAMES WERE MICKEY HARGITAY AND JAYNE MANSFIELD. SADLY, JAYNE MANSFIELD PASSED AWAY WHEN MARISKA WAS ONLY 3 YEARS OLD.
In the 1950s, Jayne Mansfield became famous in Hollywood. Her daughter, Mariska Hargitay, was just three years old when Jayne had a fatal car accident in 1967, and Mariska was in the car too.
Luckily, Mariska survived and is doing well. She’s now a famous actor in today’s time. She looks a lot like her mom!
Becoming a Hollywood star usually takes a lot of hard work over many years. Most famous people would say it’s worth it in the end,
In under ten years, Jayne Mansfield became a huge star, mainly because of her roles in popular movies. She was a famous and attractive figure in the 1950s and 1960s.
Sometimes people called her “the poor man’s Marilyn Monroe” because she got similar kinds of roles, often playing a character seen as not very smart. But in reality, she was different from those characters.
Sadly, Jayne Mansfield died in a car accident in 1967, leaving behind five kids. Today, her children are working hard to keep her memory alive.
This is the story of the lively life of Jayne Mansfield and her daughter Mariska Hargitay, who looks a lot like her mom.
Jayne Mansfield had a life that was both glamorous and sad.
In the beginning, when she was known as Vera Jayne Palmer and born on April 19, 1933, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she experienced the artistic side of life. Her dad, Herbert, who was a musician, taught her to sing and play the violin when she was a little kid.
But when Jayne was only three, her father passed away from a heart attack while they were traveling. This left her mom, Vera, who used to be a schoolteacher, alone with Jayne. Her mom had to go back to work to support the family.
She said, “Something went out of my life. My earliest memories are the best. I always try to remember the good times when Daddy was alive.”
In 1939, Jayne’s mom got married again, and the family moved to Dallas, Texas. At the same time, Jayne dreamed of becoming a Hollywood star. She loved watching Judy Garland’s movies and even dressed like her, hoping t
Jayne Mansfield didn’t finish high school before she met her first husband. She married Paul Mansfield when she was very young, just 20 years old, in 1950. They went to Southern Methodist University together to study acting, and a year later, Jayne had their first daughter, Jayne Marie Mansfield.
She entered a Miss California competition after taking a course at UCLA in Los Angeles, but she decided to leave. The family then chose to go to the University of Texas in Austin, where Jayne acted in several plays.
Even though it was fun, Jayne still wanted to go to Hollywood. So, in 1954, she moved to Los Angeles with her family.
Getting into the acting business is not easy for anyone. When Jayne started modeling, her curvy figure became a problem. Casting directors thought she was too attractive and seductive for commercials or advertisements. She even got cut out of her very first ad, which was for General Electric.
Jayne really wanted to be in movies, and she finally got a chance. She tried out for Paramount and Warner Brothers, but they didn’t choose her.
However, something important happened when she auditioned for Paramount. The person in charge of casting, Milton Lewis, told her something that changed how she saw herself.
“I had been to three different universities and two or three dramatic schools before I went to Hollywood, preparing myself for my hoped career as an actress. I did a soliloquy for Joan of Arc for Milton Lewis, who was head of casting at Paramount Studios to audition. And he seemed to think I was wasting my ‘obvious talents.’ He lightened my hair and tightened my dresses, and this is the result.”
Jayne Mansfield wanted to be as famous as Marilyn Monroe, who was the biggest Hollywood star at that time. But while her Hollywood career was starting, her husband Paul had enough and they got divorced in 1955. Their daughter stayed with Jayne in Los Angeles.
Jayne’s career finally took off when she got a role in a low-budget film called Female Jungle in 1955, which got her a lot of attention. In the same year, she was named “Playmate of the Month” and appeared on the cover of Playboy Magazine.
Her new style – the pinup, provocative blonde bombshell – was supposed to cement her status as the new Marilyn Monroe, and in a way, she definitely succeeded. Pink proved to be her color, with Jayne even buying a pink Cadillac to drive.
Studios wanted more of her and soon she was signed. Fox began to market her as the “Marilyn Monroe King-Size,” and her success grew. By that point she wasn’t just an actress; she was a sex symbol of the 1950s.
One journalist even claimed: “She suffered so many on-stage strap and zipper mishaps that nudity was, for her, a professional hazard.”
Jayne gained even more attention following her appearance in Fox’s 1957 comedy blockbuster Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?. That same year, she received a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Female. The following year, she starred alongside Kenneth More in the Western The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw (1958).
Jayne scored several other – for the time being – provocative roles, including The Burglar (1957) and Too Hot to Handle (1960). Sadly, however, she was labelled “The Poor Man’s Marilyn Monroe”.
At that time, Mansfield had gotten married to second-husband, actor and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay. They tied the knot in 1958, at a press-filled ceremony in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Before long, the family was growing. In 1959, they welcomed son Mickey Hargitay, and two more children followed. Son Zoltan Hargitay was born in 1960, and daughter Mariska Magdolna Hargitay was welcomed in 1964.
Following her performance in Too Hot to Handle, Jayne went into her first legal battle regarding film censorship. The release date of the film was delayed because of her appearing nude in what was at the time considered a scandalous dress.
A couple of years later, she got into another battle regarding the same thing. Her film Promises! Promises! (1963) sparked a huge talking point when Mansfield became the first American Hollywood movie star to appear nude on screen. The scene was considered to be way too explicit, leading to censoring and, in some cases, it being banned across the world.
By this point, Mansfield was a huge Hollywood star, with an image that at the time was considered to be “owned by the public.”
It was something she enjoyed and thought was mandatory.
”Actually, I feel that a star own it to her public, to bring the public into her life,” she said in 1960.
“The fans feel that they kind of own you and if you kept your life a complete secret it wouldn’t be fair to them. But my private life, and when I say private life, is always very private.”
As quick as Jayne had risen to fame, her career also began to fail. She was dropped from 20th Century Fox in 1962, and instead went on to appear in several TV programs and game shows. Instead of just focusing on Hollywood, Mansfield decided to go International in the 1960s, starring in several German, Italian and British films. She began also appearing onstage at nightclubs, touring both in the US and in the UK.
In 1967, a tour was put together by Don Arden, the legendary music manager, as well as father of Sharon Osbourne. One week, she was performing in the town of Batley.
Her Hollywood glamour sure did something to the people there.
“My dad thought that all these not-so-glamorous ladies would show up at Batley with their hair rollers and headscarves,” explained Neil Sean, an entertainment reporter for NBC News. “But as the week went on, they became more and more glamorous, showing up with their hair done and lipstick.”
At that point, Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay had gotten divorced, and she married director Matt Cimber. They had her fifth child, Anthony Cimber, in 1965, but they divorced the same year.
The UK tour was the last one Jayne Mansfield did. On the way from a nightclub in Mississippi to New Orleans, she got into a car accident and died at the age of 34. The accident also took the lives of her then-boyfriend Sam Brody and their driver. She was buried next to her father in Fairview Cemetery in Pennsylvania.
In the car were three of her children, who were sleeping in the backseat and thankfully were not hurt. Mariska Hargitay, who was just three years old at the time, went to live with her father, Mickey Hargitay.
So, what happened to Mariska? Well, she followed her mother into acting, and she looks a lot like her!
“Losing my mother at such an early age is the scar of my soul,” she told Redbook in 2009.
“But I feel like it ultimately made me into the person I am today. I understand the journey of life. I had to go through what I did to be here.”
Mariska decided to study theater at UCLA in California. In 1984, she made her film debut in Ghoulies. She spent the 1980s performing in several TV series in order to pursue a career on the bigger stage. But, unlike her mother, she didn’t change her name or the color of her hair. People advised her to change her name and appearance, and even copy her mother’s sexy image. At one point, she turned down doing a nude scene in the movie Jocks (1986).
Being the daughter of a Hollywood icon hasn’t been easy. And sometimes, it even has been a burden for Mariska.
“I used to hate constant references to my mom because I wanted to be known for myself,” she told Closer. “Losing my mother at such a young age is the scar of my soul.”
Before Mariska got her big role, she had been acting for 15 years. She started playing Olivia Benson in the TV show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in 1999, and she has been in a total of 481 episodes. The show is still being made.
Because of this popular show, Mariska has built a successful career. She won an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe for her role as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She was also nominated for eight other awards.
Mariska Hargitay is now a well-known actress, just like her mother. She even looks a lot like her with that beautiful smile!
In 2004, Mariska married actor and producer Peter Hermann, and they have three children.
Mariska was very young when her mother died in a car accident, but becoming a mom herself has made her feel closer to the mom she lost so early in life.
“Being a wife and mother is my life, and that gives me the most joy,” she said. “I understand [my mother] in a new way that gives me peace. Now I understand the love she had in her, and it makes me feel closer to her.”
When their stars were placed next to each other on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013, Mariska Hargitay and her mother Jayne Mansfield were reconnected in a way.
Jayne Mansfield’s remarkable performances will live on in memory forever.
Although she is no longer with us, she will always be remembered, and Mariska, her daughter, is an amazing actress. Don’t they resemble one another?
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