A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. "Your son
is here," she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words
several times before the patient's eyes opened. Heavily sedated
because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young man
in the Marine Corps uniform standing outside the oxygen tent.
He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers
around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and
encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit alongside the
bed.
Nights are long in hospitals-but all through the night the young
Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and
offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse
suggested that the Marine move away and rest a while. He
refused.
Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of
her and of the night noises of the hospital -- the clanking of the
oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging
greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.
Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man
said nothing, only held tightly to his son's hand all through the
night. Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine
released the lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse.
While
she did what she had to do, he waited. Finally, she returned. She
started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted
her.
"That's not necessary... Who was that man?" he asked.
The nurse was startled, "He was your father" she answered.
"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my
life."
"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"
"I knew right away that there had been a mistake, but I also knew he
needed his son, and his son just wasn't here. When I realized that
he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, and I knew how
much he needed me, I stayed."
The Moral: The next time God gives you an opportunity...be there.
Stay.
You'll be glad you did. |
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