A son was feeling the burden of taking care of his frail and ailing widower father. The old man must have been in his late 80s. Losing the use of his faculties; losing the slow and arduous battle to life. He had withdrawn into a sad and silent shell because nobody would talk to him. Nobody treated him nice. Especially his son’s wife who made him feel unwanted. The wife told her husband they could not carry on the liability of taking care of his father. She insisted they put him in an old age home.
That day came. The son and his wife took the father to an institution. While he was busy with the administration, the matron asked if they wanted a room with a TV and AC. The wife shook her head. She said that she didn’t want the father to visit them on festivals and birthdays too. The old man watched silently. The fear of being alone creeping upon him. His anguish was mirrored in his old and tired eyes. His drooping shoulders. The defeat was written all over him.
Then an elderly Catholic priest noticed the old man and approached him. Soon they were talking familiarly. With the formalities over, the son hastily took his father’s leave, and the weeping old man was shakily led away by attendants with his few belongings. The son accosted the Catholic priest and asked him how he knew his father. The priest narrated, this boy came to my orphanage some 45 years back, I adopted the poor sick boy, as no one wanted to adopt him.
He added, that boy is you, my son.
Moral of the story:
Your old Dad does not need a new wallet or aftershave or a sweater or book for Father’s Day. He expects nothing. He invested time, care, and love in you and those have a return date. Don’t break his heart that once swelled with selfless pride for you by rejecting him now. Being there for him in his fading years is your duty. That’s what life is about. He didn’t raise you to be unkind, inconsiderate, and unavailable. You don’t know what mountains he crossed, what storms he faced, to make you the man you are. He loved you – so love him now.
About Mark Manuel
