Sunday, August 10, 2008

Who Was That Man?

Just Stay

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 uniformed Marine 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 beside the bed.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 awhile.

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 all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now 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.

'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 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, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed.'

The next time someone needs you ... just be there. Stay.
**************
WE ARE NOT HUMAN BEINGS GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. WE ARE SPIRITUAL BEINGS GOING THROUGH A TEMPORARY HUMAN EXPERIENCE. (think about it)

PLEASE PASS THIS! ONE ON AND GOD WILL BLESS YOU! THIS IS WHAT WE ARE PUT ON THIS EARTH TO DO ANYWAY. RIGHT ?

HAVE A GREAT DAY AND BLESS SOMEONE ELSE IN SOME LITTLE WAY TODAY!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope a lot of people get to read this excellent post.

Pat - Arkansas said...

Beautiful story; heart-touching and inspirational. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Wanda said...

This is what life is all about.

What a beautiful story and and great way to start my Sunday Morning.

LOL:) Wanda

Renie Burghardt said...

I read this story before, maybe in my email, or maybe somewhere else, and it always brings tears to my eyes. Thank you for posting it and reminding me of its message.

Love,

Renie

Nancy said...

What a great story! Really touched my heart! My mom and I, when I was in high school, stayed with an old lady when she was dying as she had no one there. Poor old soul. That was the first person I ever saw die....I'm glad we were there for her. I hope someone is there with me when it's my time to go.

(((((( HUGS ))))))