Beautiful stranger on school run inspires a working mum to revamp her own lifestyle
AS she drove to work each morning, career-minded Rachaele Hambleton was struck by the sight of a mother walking her children to school.
And over the course of ten years, care home manager Miss Hambleton saw the young woman’s brood grow up under their loving mother’s care.
She knew her only as the ‘ beautiful lady with crazy blonde curly hair’, but she was so inspired by the stranger she decided to make more time for her own children.
In a touching post on social media, she told how she had reduced her working hours to bake cakes and see her little ones’ school plays – and thanked the mystery parent she had watched for a decade.
Telling how ‘in awe’ she was of her, Miss Hambleton, 33, wrote: ‘She started out 10 years ago walking her eldest baby to the primary school with her younger ones carried on her chest and in double buggies whilst walking a beautiful puppy retriever.
‘Every morning I would watch her and be in awe at how organised she was, how she could possibly manage and how happy her babies looked.’
She admitted that after seeing them
‘In awe of how happy they looked’
she would continue her journey ‘with a lump in my throat’ because ‘that someone else was doing all of those things with my babies because I felt I should be at work.’
The mother-of-five, whose fiance, Josh Marshall, is a police officer with Devon and Cornwall constabulary, told how she had seen the other woman’s children grow up – one of her daughters from a ‘tiny baby’ to ‘a little lady’ –- and the family’s pet dog who accompanied them grow older and slower.
‘I just wanted to post on here, in the hope somehow it will reach you, to say thank you’, she added.
‘Because of you I have now reduced my working hours, so I can spend some mornings at home doing the crazy school runs with all my babies, I make sure I go and fight back tears watching all their school plays and bake (mainly inedible) cakes for the fetes, and I love all of it!
‘It’s amazing that seeing a 30-second glimpse of someone else’s life once a day can make yours so much more enjoyable.’
The post went viral and, incredibly, the woman she had observed for all those years on her journey from Torquay over the Shaldon Bridge to Teignmouth, Devon, replied – saying she was ‘honoured to have made a difference to someone’s life without even knowing it.’
The woman, known only as Naomi, said: ‘ I ’ m absolutely amazed that you have noticed me for such a long time and noticed the changes in my family…
‘That short walk across Shaldon Bridge is my little bit of therapy and how blessed we all are to live in such a beautiful part of the world!
‘Many, many thanks for allowing me to be part of your journey and give me a beep when we pass next so I can give you a wave!’
The post which Rachaele posted on Facebook page Spotted Torquay has so far received thousands of likes and hundreds of shares online.