An Invisible Thread: The True Story of an 11-Year-Old Panhandler, a Busy Sales Executive, and an Unlikely Meeting with Destiny

Months turn into years without Schroff hearing from Maurice. What she doesn’t know is during this time he makes a terrible realization about his grandmother. After believing her to be the solo relative not addicted to drugs, he watches her hospitalized and then succumb to illness caused by long term drug use. He is heartbroken by the loss and feels betrayed. His relationship with Meka also ends. They fight too much to make it work, and he doesn’t want his son to grow up in that environment. They remain in contact and work to raise Junior together. Shortly thereafter, he meets another woman, Michelle, and they have a son, Jalique, together. Maurice is determined to provide for his children and makes a trip down to North Carolina where he hopes to sell plenty of his knock off merchandise. Instead of turning a profit there, he ends up in a middle of gunfire as a result of keeping questionable company. Maurice realizes what a mistake he has made and hurries home. He is overjoyed to be back with his children and Michelle, but his happiness is short lived. He gets word that Darcella is sick with AIDS. She is finally clean and sober but has little time left. He stays with her at her deathbed. Maurice then, after over three years, calls Schroff: “You’re my mother now” (204).

The sudden death of her brother Frank dampens Schroff’s joy of reconnecting with Maurice. Frank moved to Florida to be closer to Annette and her family, but his health, both physical and mental, deteriorated rapidly. The abuse he endured in childhood made an indelible mark on Frank’s adulthood. After dropping out of high school, he joined the military. He was briefly married but ended up alone, gaining an unhealthy amount of weight and never properly taking care of himself. He dies while only in his 40s.

In contrast, Maurice makes great strides towards getting his life together. He gets a minimum wage job but quickly works his way up the ladder, becoming a supervisor. He enrolls in a GED program and achieves his high school equivalency. Still dreaming of becoming a police officer, he decides to enroll in community college. There his drive and talents are noted, and he is asked to give a presentation before the New York City Council.  

For her fiftieth birthday, Schroff’s husband Michael throws her a big party, one that all her friends and relatives attend in evening wear, including Maurice. He is the one who gives the official toast, crediting Schroff with saving his life. Listening to him speak, Schroff thinks back through the years of their friendship and decides she was the on the receiving end of the relationship, getting the greatest gift of love and understanding from this person who lived in a drastically different world than her.

Although Schroff and Michael end up divorcing—perhaps because of their different feelings about having children and about Maurice—Maurice’s family life is stable. He and Michelle stay together and have additional children, completing their happy, supportive home. Now it is Schroff who goes to Maurice’s home. As one family, they sit around and have dinner at the big table he always resolved to get.