Papky

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.

He was 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