This was sent in by Lois
Thank You Lois!
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 lightedward, holding the old man's hand and offering himwords 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 Marinereleased
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."
I came
here tonight to
find a Mr. William Grey.
His Son
was Killed in Iraq
today,
and I was sent to
inform
him. What was this
Gentleman's
Name?
The
Nurse with Tears in
Her
Eyes Answered,
Mr. William Grey
.............
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.
*************************
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just stay
