He Needed ME

A nurse escorted a tired, anxious young man to the bed side of an elderly man.
"Your son is here," she whispered to the patient. 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 and he dimly saw the young man standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand and the young man tightly wrapped his fingers around it, squeezing a message of encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair next to the bedside. All through the night the young man sat holding the old man's hand, and offering gentle words of hope. The dying man said nothing as he held tightly to his son. As dawn approached, the patient died. The young man placed on the bed the lifeless hand he had been holding, and then he went to notify the nurse.

While the nurse did what was necessary, the young man waited. When she had finished her task, the nurse began to say words of sympathy to the young man. But he interrupted her. "Who was that man?" He asked. The startled nurse replied, "I thought he was your father." "No, he was not my father," he answered. I never saw him before in my life. "Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?" asked the nurse. He replied, "I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn't here. When I realized he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, I knew how much he needed me..."

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A dear "Old" friend of mine has gone into the resthome just this past week. I went to visit her in the "Leisure Lounge" with it's hospital type rooms, but pleasant atmosphere, smartly and elegantly decorated... Room 57, Mrs. Custer, 97 years old, looks forward to my visits...

In this small city of 14,000 and several resthomes, I was surprised to see so many people filling the halls, many lost in their own world, creeping along an inch at a time... I was struck by the sad loniliness, missing their families. Every room had a TV, but I don't remember a single one on... Most of them sit with a blank look on their face, or look up in hope, to you, hoping you are coming to visit them, maybe it is someone they know.

If you want to inspire someone, take your friends or family, go to a resthome and just ask the nurse who is the loniest person living there who needs visitors and watch a wise old face brighten with your smile.

Chello