There is a beautiful story of an overworked nurse who escorted a tired, young man to her patient's bedside. Leaning over and speaking loudly to the elderly patient, she said, "Your son is here."
With great effort, his unfocused eyes opened, then flickered shut again. The young man squeezed the aged hand in his and sat beside the bed. Throughout the night he sat there, holding the old man's hand and whispering words of comfort. By morning's light, the patient had died.
In moments, hospital staff swarmed into the room to turn off machines and remove needles. The nurse stepped
over to the young man's side and began to offer sympathy, 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?" The man explained "I realized he needed his son and his son wasn't here, and since he was too sick to
recognize that I was not his son, I knew he needed me."
