When I saw the cruel message scrawled on my recovering grandpa’s dusty car, I was livid. But uncovering the culprit’s identity was just the beginning. What I did next would teach this entitled neighbor a lesson she’d never forget.
Two months ago, I was at work when my phone rang. It was Mom.
“Meg, it’s Grandpa,” she barely managed to speak. “He’s in the hospital. He—”
“What? Hospital?” I cut her off, totally blindsided. “What happened?”
A woman talking on the phone at work | Source: Pexels
“He had a heart attack,” Mom continued in her shaky voice. “We gotta go see him.”
“Oh my God, Mom, is he okay?”
“I don’t know, Meg…”
“I’ll be there as fast as I can, Mom,” I replied as I quickly logged out of my work email.
The thing is, Grandpa Alvin is my rock, my confidant, and my favorite person in the world. It won’t be wrong to say that I love him more than Mom. Shh! It’s a secret!
An older man standing in his house | Source: Midjourney
And that phone call from Mom had turned my world upside down. I could literally feel a knot in my stomach as I rushed out of my office after informing my boss about Grandpa’s condition.
The drive home from my workplace is a blur. I don’t remember how I got there, but I quickly picked Mom up before we rushed to the hospital.
The drive from our house to the hospital was about 45 minutes long. And let me tell you, those were the longest, most painful 45 minutes of my life. Mom kept crying the entire time, while I could feel my heart pounding inside my chest.
Once we reached there, a nurse told us that Grandpa was in the operating room. After what felt like an eternity, the doctor came out.
A close-up shot of a doctor’s arms crossed on his chest | Source: Pexels
“The surgery was successful, but he needs rest and care,” he told us. “He needs to eat a heart-healthy diet, low in salt and saturated fats. Regular, gentle exercise is crucial. And absolutely no stress.”
“Alright, doc,” I nodded. “But when can we see him?”
“Is he really okay?” Mom asked impatiently.
“Don’t worry,” the doctor reassured her. “He’s resting comfortably now. The nurses will let you know when it’s a good time to visit.”
A doctor talking to a woman | Source: Midjourney
Grandpa was allowed to go home a few days later, but there was a problem. He lives in another town, and we couldn’t visit him every day to look after him.
As a result, we hired a full-time nurse.
She was a godsend, agreeing to cook for him too. For two months, Grandpa didn’t leave his apartment and focused solely on his recovery.
Last week, I realized it had been too long since I’d seen him.
A woman sitting on a chair, thinking | Source: Midjourney
“Mom,” I said over breakfast, “I’m going to visit Grandpa this weekend. Wanna come?”
Her eyes lit up.
“That’s a wonderful idea, honey,” she smiled. “I’ll come with you. He’ll be so happy to see us!”
“Perfect!” I said before I took a bite of my scrambled eggs.
On Saturday, I woke up early, bought a bouquet of Grandpa’s favorite bright yellow sunflowers, and drove all the way to his place with Mom.
I couldn’t wait to meet him and see his face light up. I was expecting a day full of Grandpa’s stories, unaware of what was waiting for us there.
As we pulled into the parking lot of his apartment complex, I spotted his old, beat-up car. It was covered with a thick layer of dust, clearly proving he hadn’t driven it since getting sick.
But as we got closer, something made my blood boil.
A woman in a car | Source: Midjourney
Someone had left a message on the rear windscreen. It seemed like they had written it using their finger. It looked fresh.
The message read, “YOU ARE A DIRTY PIG! CLEAN UP YOUR CAR OR GET OUT OF THE COMMUNITY. SHAME! SHAME! SHAME!”
I was absolutely furious. How could someone be so cruel to an old man who’s been too sick to even get out of bed, let alone clean his car?
A woman in a car, looking angry | Source: Midjourney
“Oh my God,” Mom gasped. “Who would do such a thing?”
I clenched my fists. I could feel my cheeks burn with rage.
“Some entitled jerk with nothing better to do than harass a sick old man, that’s who.”
Then, I felt Mom’s soft hand on my arm.
“Honey, calm down,” she said. “Let’s not upset your grandfather.”
I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself.
“You’re right. Let’s go see him.”
A parking lot of an apartment complex | Source: Pexels
We quickly headed up to Grandpa’s apartment. I rang the bell, waiting for him to open the door.
“My girls!” he smiled from ear to ear. “What a wonderful surprise!”
“Grandpa!” I hugged him tight. “You look so good! So handsome!”
“Well, of course I do!” he chuckled. “When have I ever not looked handsome? Even in my hospital gown, I was turning heads left and right!”
An older man in his house, smiling | Source: Midjourney
As we headed inside, I couldn’t stop thinking of the cruel message on his car. I couldn’t erase that image from my mind.
“Megan? Are you listening, sweetheart?” Grandpa’s voice snapped me back to reality.
“Sorry, Grandpa. I was just… thinking. How are you feeling?”
We chatted for a while, but my mind kept drifting to that message. I needed to do something about it.
“Hey, I need to take care of something real quick,” I said, standing up. “Mom, can you stay with Grandpa? I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
A woman talking to her mother | Source: Midjourney
“Sure, honey,” Mom said.
In no time, I headed down to the security office near the entrance, where I met a bored-looking guy sitting behind the desk.
“Excuse me,” I said. “I need to see the security camera footage from the parking lot.”
He raised an eyebrow as he straightened his back.
“Sorry, ma’am. We can’t just show that to anyone who asks.”
A security guard | Source: Midjourney
I leaned in, lowering my voice.
“Look, my grandfather lives here. He’s been very ill, and someone vandalized his car with a horrible message. I need to know who did it.”
The guard hesitated, then nodded.
“Alright, just this once.”
We reviewed the footage from the last few days when I suddenly saw an older, snooty-looking woman, heading towards Grandpa’s car. She took her sweet time to write that awful message on his car.
An older woman standing near a black car | Source: Midjourney
“Who is this?” I asked the guard.
“That’s Briana from 4C,” he said. “Always causing trouble.”
I thanked him and turned to leave, but he stopped me.
“Wait, there’s something else. I overheard some of the neighbors talking in the lobby last week. Apparently, this Briana woman has been giving your grandfather a hard time for months now.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He scratched his chin thoughtfully.
A security guard talking to a woman | Source: Midjourney
“Well, they were saying she’s been complaining about every little thing. Like, she’d make a fuss if his newspaper was left out too long, or if his welcome mat wasn’t perfectly straight. One of the ladies even mentioned that Briana tried to get your grandpa fined for having a potted plant that was ‘an unapproved color’ or something ridiculous like that.”
“Are you serious? Why hasn’t anyone done anything about this?”
“Most folks just try to avoid her, I guess,” he shrugged.
“Your grandpa’s too nice to make a big deal out of it. But between you and me, I think everyone’s getting pretty fed up with her attitude.”
Yeah, my grandpa’s nice, but I’m not, I thought to myself before marching straight to Briana’s apartment.
The door opened soon after I knocked on it.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“I’m Alvin’s granddaughter,” I said, struggling to keep my voice steady. “I saw what you wrote on his car. You have no right to humiliate him like that!”
A young woman talking to her grandfather’s neighbor | Source: Midjourney
“I don’t care,” she shrugged. “If he can’t keep up with community standards, maybe he shouldn’t be living here.”
And with that, she slammed the door in my face.
I was livid. It was clear that talking to her wasn’t going to get anywhere, so I decided to handle it my own way. I came up with a plan to teach her a lesson. All I needed was a roll of duct tape and a paper with evidence.
A woman leaving a building | Source: Midjourney
The next day, I took a screenshot of the security camera footage, ensuring Briana’s face was clear, and got it printed. Then, in big, bold letters, I wrote: “SHAME! SHAME! SHAME! Lady from Apt 4C is abusing elderly neighbors.”
I taped that sign right in the elevator where everyone would see it. It was crystal clear who she was and what she’d done.
Within a day, the whole building was buzzing.
The Real Reason Why We Haven’t Seen Lacey Chabert Lately
Actress Lacey Chabert, known for her roles in Party of Five and Mean Girls, is no longer as young as she once was.
At the height of her Mean Girls fame, she seemed to be destined for stardom, but co-star Rachel McAdams went on to become the movie’s Hollywood favorite, starring in movies including The Notebook, Spotlight, and Wedding Crashers.
Even Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Seyfried, who costarred in Mean Girls, were able to hold onto their fame; Lohan was merely Lindsay Lohan, while Seyfried was given well-regarded parts.
But what has Lacey Chabert been doing with her time since then? Actually, she’s found her true calling somewhere else.
Lacey Chabert has achieved success over the years in this way.
A shift in emphasis
Julia Mimi Bella, a daughter, was born to Lacey Chabert as her first child in September 2016.
According to E! News, the actress went into full nesting mode in preparation for her daughter’s arrival. She set up the nursery and even spoke with her pet friend, a chihuahua named Kitty, during a pre-interview.
Chabert was obviously happy to welcome her daughter Julia, but it’s possible that motherhood changed her priorities.
This was evident when Chabert discussed the challenges of balancing her new career path with her life as a working mother in the entertainment world in the fall and winter of 2018. Yes, this was during the press tour for her 16th Hallmark movie.
“If you had told me two years ago that this is what my career would look like today, I think I would have been surprised, but it’s such a great fit for who I am and where I am in my life right now,” Chabert said in an interview with the Clarion Ledger in November 2018.
She’ll never be separated from Gretchen Wieners.
The iconic Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls, portrayed by Chabert, is credited with coining the catchphrase “that’s so fetch.” Perhaps she is still thought of by Hollywood as the dimwitted teenager whose father invented the Toaster Strudel?
It’s easy to get typecast in Hollywood, after all—just look at the lovable romantic actress Jennifer Aniston or the eternally quirky Helena Bonham Carter.
When it comes to her more popular work, Chabert’s career identity is still entirely contained in a single film. Ten years after the Mean Girls film’s debut, Chabert told Entertainment Weekly in 2014, “People tweet me hundreds of times, if not thousands of times [with] lines from the movie.”
To be fair, though, she finds the association unsettling. In fact, if a sequel were ever created, Chabert told Star in December 2018 that she “would love to be a part of it.” Give Tina Fey a call now!
The Hallmark movies with Lacey Chabert in them
Lacey Chabert had starred in more than 20 Hallmark Channel shows as of the time of writing.
That’s a lot of productions for any channel, much less one that specializes in the campy, saccharine sweet fare that any mother on earth could not resist. However, Hallmark isn’t exactly the place to go if you’re searching for an Oscar nomination or the next big blockbuster sensation.
Other well-known actors who have appeared in Hallmark movies include Dean Cain, Danica McKellar, and Jennifer Love Hewitt.
When was the last time you saw them in an A-list film? Nevertheless, Chabert is obviously happy with her new network and the endearing series it airs—which, in an Entertainment Weekly interview, she described as “like comfort food.”
Her prolific output of holiday-themed content for Hallmark is also no coincidence.”Christmas is my favorite holiday. I’m obsessed with it, as everyone who knows me will attest,” Chabert told the Clarion Ledger.”I wish it lasted for more than just one month each year. It follows that my enjoyment of creating Christmas movies is only natural.
Maybe Lacey Chabert’s convictions prevented her from seeing more
In Tinseltown circles, there’s a notion that success doesn’t always follow from a strong Christian faith (Mel Gibson and Candace Cameron Bure are two examples).
The Hercules TV series actor Kevin Sorbo stated to CNS News in 2014, “I think you get attacked in Hollywood if you’re a conservative and a Christian.”That same year, Chabert starred in the film Christian Mingle, which got just three “rotten” reviews overall from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes.
Is it possible that Chabert’s lack of success in Hollywood is a result of her public confession of her religious beliefs?
Chabert said, “You know, my faith has always been the center of my life, and I have no shame about saying that,” in an exclusive interview with Christian Mingle.
She also added, “I think it’s beautiful that she comes to a point where her faith is something that’s very personal and alive for her, and I think it’s a nice message,” as an explanation for her interest to the movie character.
Chabert added that she wouldn’t consider some movie roles due to the way a character’s faith is shown in the piece.
The money from Lacey Chabert’s flicks hasn’t been great.
According to Forbes, A-list stars Jennifer Lawrence and Scarlett Johansson earned $46 million and $25 million, respectively, in 2016. Their films’ success has made them profitable.
Sadly, Chabert’s movies don’t live up to the hype, with the exception of Mean Girls and a few minor hits. It is possible that casting directors are reluctant to offer a big-budget film role to an actor who hasn’t been in one for more than ten years.
For the ordinary person, Chabert’s estimated net worth of $4 million is nothing to laugh at, but in comparison to some of her friends, it is noticeably less impressive.
Chabert’s biggest project was really the 2003 slapstick comedy about parenthood, Daddy Day Care, starring Eddie Murphy. The movie was not well received.
The Numbers claims that the film brought in over $104 million domestically, but is there any evidence linking Chabert to it? Probably not.
Chabert’s success has waned after Mean Girls gained popularity a year later and earned over $86 million domestically in 2004. Lawrence, on the other hand, made nearly $281 million at the box office with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2.
How is Lacey Chabert doing at Family Guy?
For an actress, working with Chabert might not be the easiest. Due to contractual issues, Mila Kunis replaced her as the original pick to play Meg Gryphon in the wildly successful Family Guy television series, as reported by The Huffington Post.
Despite the fact that Seth MacFarlane, the show’s creator, and the actress have both responded with greater tact, there are rumors that Chabert and the show had a falling out.
According to Chabert, “I actually left the show of my own accord,” as reported by GameSpy (via The Huffington Post). and only because Party of Five was what I was doing at the time while I was in school. However, I find the show entertaining and have no animosity toward [Kunis]. I believe she is an excellent actress.According to MacFarlane, no one could “even remember” why Chabert left, as he told IGN.”It was nothing at all; there was no tension at all.””[Kunis] was in many ways, I thought, almost more right for the character,” he continued.
Everything looks okay, so why is there an overt Family Guy episode clip? We’ll let you to decide.
At heart, Lacey Chabert is a girl from a little town.
The pastor of Purvis, Mississippi, and uncle of Lacey Chabert, despite her success with Party of Five and Mean Girls, told the Clarion Ledger that “none of this movie stuff has gone to her head.”Chabert told the newspaper that she feels the same way and tries to see her “extended family” who is still in Purvis, where she grew up till she was seven years old.
“I am incredibly happy to come from Purvis. I’m grateful for the morals that were taught to me there,” she continued.”I adore the people and am grateful for all of their help over the years.”
It makes natural to think that Chabert would decline travel-intensive professions so she could be close to her family. In reference to those principles from her little village that she mentioned? That could have also affected her choice of employment.
She desires to explore new business ventures.
While it’s clear that Lacey Chabert feels at ease in front of the camera, she has established professional objectives that will require her to spend more time out of the spotlight as she pursues them.
Chabert disclosed that she works behind the scenes at the Hallmark Channel in addition to acting as the network’s unofficial face in an interview with the Clarion Ledger.
“I’m more motivated than ever,” Chabert said to the newspaper in reference to her new role as executive producer. “I want to share so many experiences, and I want to learn more about many facets of the industry. My weakness is that I adore narrating stories. And I recall observing and taking in all that goes into producing a show while working on the Party of Five set. And at some point, I’d like to concentrate on that professionally.
Based on her IMDb biography, Chabert seemed to have succeeded at this, as seen by her seven producer credits on Hallmark movies from 2016 to 2020.
In addition, she not only starred in all seven of those Hallmark movies that she isn’t producing, but also in every one of those shows. Was she bundled up by Hollywood and sent to Hallmark?
Lacey Chabert is making things work on her terms.
Even though Chabert operated for years without drawing much attention from the public, it seems like she carved up a pretty successful career for herself.
She has been chosen for a number of voice roles, such as those in The Wild Thornberrys! Menace of Mecha Mutt and Scooby Doo. Just going down that route may get her back on the A-List like Anna Kendrick did in Trolls or Reese Witherspoon did in Sing, or it could just keep her relevant by bringing in some younger fans.
However, Chabert may be beginning to adopt a mompreneurship style similar to that of Jessica Alba. During her late-2018 press trip, Chabert incessantly advertised Tyson Meal Kits, which she personally supports.
These can be seen here and here as examples. She also told Good Housekeeping that the company’s current photographic style—hint: quick—goes well with Hallmark’s.
Regarding Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe, which debuted in 2018, Chabert told Good Housekeeping, “This movie was shot in 15 days, as were most Hallmark movies.”
She went on, “Being a hands-on mom and working is challenging, but I’m grateful to work at a place that makes it easier for me,” before once more endorsing Tyson Meal Kits, which she characterized as “quicker and stress free.”
These days, someone knows where her bread is buttered, and it’s not the massive Hollywood studio system.
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