Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Just stay

A friend of mine sent me this story in an email. You might have seen it before:

"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. "

8 comments:

larry white said...

Never saw it before, but thanks, Anji! It's a keeper.

Anonymous said...

Love your blog Anji. You are such a wonderful writer...Mysti

Zed said...

That's a lovely story, thank you.

Voegtli said...

Beautiful.

Harvey said...

Beautiful story~ thanks for sharing

Anonymous said...

I'm really really fortunate to say when I read this post a person I know came to mind. He isn't a marine but he would stay. I just wish I could say I knew lots of other people who were like that,
this challenges me most of all all,

Thanks

Helen xx

Jen said...

What a wonderful story, and I've never heard it before either (so thank you for posting it :o)

Anji said...

Larry: Nice to see you, thank you for dropping by.

Mysti: Thanks for sending the story and I'm glad you enjoy reading my blog

Zed: You're wencome

Peter: Thank you

Harvey: Hello Harvey, thanks for your visit

Helen: There aren't many -something for us to aspire to

Jen: it is a lovely story, pleased you enjoyed it