What the investigator discovered over the next few days was heartbreaking. Brian’s wife had died two years earlier from cancer. She had been the primary bread winner in the family, working as a nurse while Brian stayed home with the kids. When she died, Brian not only lost his wife, but also the family’s health insurance and main income.
Brian had been unable to keep up with the mortgage payments on their small house while also paying for his wife’s funeral and medical bills that insurance had not covered. The house had been foreclosed on 6 months ago. Brian had tried to keep the kids in the same school district by living in his car in the area, working the night shift as a janitor so he could be with his children during the day.
He would take them to school in the morning, then try to sleep in his car for a few hours before picking them up in the afternoon. He would spend the evening with them at the library or a park or fast food restaurants where they could sit for a while without anyone bothering them. Then at night, after getting the kids settled in the car with their blankets, he would go to work.
Brian was doing all of this on a janitor’s salary, which was barely enough to pay for gas and food, let alone save up for an apartment. He was trapped in an impossible situation, working as hard as he could, but unable to get ahead enough to change his circumstances, and he was doing it all while trying to protect his children and give them as normal a life as possible, despite living in a car.
When Neil heard all of this, he knew exactly what he had to do. He called his accountant and his lawyer and explained what he wanted. Then he went to work setting up a plan. He did not want to just throw money at the problem in a way that would embarrass Brian or make him feel like charity. He wanted to create a solution that would give Brian and his children stability and dignity.
A few days later, Neil approached Brian at the studio. He told Brian that he had noticed what a good job Brian did keeping the studio clean and that he was impressed by Brian’s work ethic and attention to detail. He said that he was looking for someone to manage the maintenance of a property he owned, a small apartment building in the valley.
The job would include a free apartment for Brian and his family, plus a salary increase from what he was making as a night janitor. Would Brian be interested? Brian’s face went through a series of expressions, confusion, hope, disbelief. He asked Neil why he was offering this to him, if he had done something wrong at the studio.
Neil assured him he had done nothing wrong, that this was simply an opportunity that had come up. And Neil thought Brian would be perfect for it. The property manager job was real, Neil explained. There would be actual work involved maintaining the building. It was not just a handout. Brian’s eyes filled with tears.
He asked Neil to wait a moment, and then he walked to a corner of the studio where Neil could not see him. When he came back a few minutes later, his eyes were red and he was visibly struggling to maintain his composure. He told Neil that he would be honored to accept the job. And then, his voice breaking, he said something that Neil would never forget.
He said that he did not know how Neil knew about his situation, but that God must have sent Neil as an answer to the prayers he had been praying every night for his children. Brian asked if he could start the new job immediately, and Neil said absolutely. He gave Brian the address of the apartment building and told him to go there right away, that the apartment was ready and waiting.
Brian could barely speak. He shook Neil’s hand with both of his hands, thanking him over and over. Then he left the studio, almost running to get to his car where his children were waiting with the news that would change their lives. Neil followed at a distance one more time, wanting to see the moment when Brian told his children.
He watched from his car as Brian opened the door of the Honda and gathered his two kids in his arms. He saw Brian talking to them, saw the children’s faces change from confusion to disbelief to joy. He saw all three of them crying and hugging, and he saw the little girl, who could not have been more than 6 years old, put her small hands on her father’s face as if to make sure he was real and this was really happening.
That night, Brian and his children moved into their new apartment. It was a simple two-bedroom apartment, nothing fancy, but after living in a car for 6 months, it was a palace. The apartment came furnished with beds, a couch, a television, a fully equipped kitchen. Neil had made sure that the refrigerator and pantry was stocked with food.
There were new clothes in the closets for both children. There were toys and books. There was everything a family would need to start over. Brian called Neil the next day and he could barely get the words out through his tears. He said that his children had slept in real beds for the first time in 6 months, that they had woken up that morning and asked if it was real or if they were dreaming.
He said that he did not know how to thank Neil for what he had done, that it was beyond anything he could have hoped for or imagined. Neil told Brian that he did not need thanks, that seeing Brian and his children in a safe home was all the thanks he needed. But he asked Brian for one thing.
He asked him to keep this quiet, to not tell anyone about Neil’s involvement. Neil did not want publicity or recognition for what he had done. He had done it because it was the right thing to do, not because he wanted credit or praise. Brian agreed to keep Neil’s secret. He worked as the property manager for that apartment building for the next several years, taking excellent care of the property and the tenants.
His children thrived now that they had stability. The boy who had been falling behind in school because of the chaos of living in a car, caught up and eventually excelled. The girl who had been so quiet and withdrawn became a happy, talkative child again. Both children knew that Mr. Diamond, the famous singer their dad had worked for, had helped them, but they did not fully understand the extent of what he had done until they were older.
Neil continued his career releasing albums, touring, performing for millions of people, but he never mentioned publicly what he had done for Brian and his family. It was not until many years later, after Brian’s children had grown and graduated from college and started their own successful lives, that the story began to come out.
Brian, wanting the world to know what kind of man Neil Diamond truly was, finally told the story in an interview with a local newspaper. The story quickly spread across social media and news outlets. People were amazed and moved by what Neil had done, by the fact that he had helped this family so completely and so quietly.
