> 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.