Here are four short stories.
Father's Eyes
Information Please
Look In Your Heart
Please Dress Me in Red
This young man was still the smallest of the class when he entered
The news that he had survived the cut thrilled him so much that
Saturday arrived, and the game was not going well.
As he ran onto the sidelines, the coach and his players were astounded
Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an
amazing person - her name was Information Please and there was nothing
she did not know. Information Please could supply anybody's number and
the correct time.
My first personal experience with this genie-in-the-bottle came one
day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the
tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer. The
pain was terrible, but there didn't seem to be any reason in crying
because there was no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the
house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway
The telephone! Quickly I ran for the footstool in the parlor and
dragged it to the landing. Climbing up I unhooked the receiver in the
parlor and held it to my ear. Information Please I said into the
mouthpiece just above my head.
A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear.
"Information."
"I hurt my finger. . ." I wailed into the phone. The tears came
readily enough now that I had an audience.
"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.
"Nobody's home but me." I blubbered.
"Are you bleeding?"
"No," I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts."
"Can you open your icebox?" she asked. I said I could. "Then chip off
a little piece of ice and hold it to your finger."
After that I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for
help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was. She
helped me with my math, and she told me my pet chipmunk I had caught in
the park just the day before would eat fruits and nuts.
And there was the time that Petey, our pet canary died. I called
Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, then said
the usual things grown-ups say to soothe a child. But I was
unconsoled. Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring
joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers, feet up on
the bottom of a cage?
She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly,
"Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in." Somehow I
felt better.
Another day I was on the telephone. "Information Please."
"Information," said the now familiar voice.
"How do you spell fix?" I asked.
All this took place in a small town in the pacific Northwest. Then
when I was 9 years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I
missed my friend very much. Information Please belonged in that old
wooden box back home, and I somehow never thought of trying the tall,
shiny new phone that sat on the hall table.
Yet as I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood
conversations never really left me; often in moments of doubt and
perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I
appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have
spent her time on a little boy.
A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in
Seattle. I had about half an hour or so between plane, and I spent 15
minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then
without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and
said, "Information Please".
Miraculously, I heard again the small, clear voice I knew so well,
"Information." I hadn't planned this but I heard myself saying, "Could
you tell me please how-to spell fix?"
There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess
that your finger must have healed by now."
I laughed, "So it's really still you," I said. "I wonder if you have
any idea how much you meant to me during that time."
"I wonder, she said, if you know how much your calls meant to me. I
never had any children, and I used to look forward to your calls."
I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked
if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.
"Please do, just ask for Sally."
Just three months later I was back in Seattle. . .A different voice
answered Information and I asked for Sally.
"Are you a friend?"
"Yes, a very old friend."
"Then I'm sorry to have to tell you. Sally has been working part-time
the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago."
But before I could hang up she said, "Wait a minute. Did you say your
name was Paul?"
"Yes."
"Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down. Here it is
I'll read it ' Tell him I still say there are other worlds to sing in.
He'll know what I mean.' "
I thanked her and hung up. I did know what Sally meant.
"There's something you should know the son continued,
"he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on
a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere
else to go, and I want him to come live with us."
"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find
somewhere to live." "No, Mom and Dad, I want him to
live with us." "Son," said the father, "you don't know
what you're asking. Someone with such a handicap
would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives
to live, and we can't let something like this interfere with
our lives. I think you should just come home and forget
about this guy. He'll find a way to live on his own."
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents
heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however,
they received a call from the San Francisco police. Their
son had died after falling from a building, they were told.
The police believed it was suicide.
The grief-stricken
parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city
morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized
him, but to their horror they also discovered something
they didn't know, their son had only one arm and one leg.
The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it
easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have
around, but we don't like people who inconvenience us
or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay
away from people who aren't as healthy, beautiful, or
smart as we are.
Thankfully, there's someone who won't treat us that way.
Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that
welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how
messed up we are.
Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a
little prayer that God will give you the strength you need
to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more
understanding of those who are different from us.
There's a miracle called Friendship
That dwells in the heart
You don't know how it happens
Or when it gets started
But you know the special lift
It always brings
And you realize that Friendship
Is God's most precious gift!
Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed.
They make you smile and encourage you to succeed
They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they
always want to open their hearts to us.
author unknown
Tyler was born with HIV; his mother was also infected. From the very beginning of his life, he was dependent on medications to enable him to survive. When he was 5, he had a tube surgically inserted into a vein in his chest. This tube was connected to a pump, which he carried in a small backpack on his back. Medications were hooked up to this pump and were continuously supplied through this tube to his bloodstream. At times, he also needed supplemental oxygen to support his breathing.
Tyler wasn't willing to give up one single moment of his childhood to this deadly disease. It was not unusual to find him playing and racing around his backyard, wearing his medicine-laden backpack and dragging his tank of oxygen behind him in his little wagon. All of us who knew Tyler marveled at his pure joy at being alive and the energy it gave him. Tyler's mom often teased him by telling him he moved so fast she needed to dress him in red. That way, when she peered out the window to check on him playing in the yard, she could quickly spot him.
This dreaded disease eventually wore down even the likes of a little dynamo like Tyler. He grew quite ill and, unfortunately, so did his HIV-infected mother. When it became apparent that he wasn't going to survive, Tyler's mom talked to him about death. She comforted him by telling Tyler that she was dying too, and that she would be with him soon in Heaven.
A few days before his death, Tyler beckoned me over to his hospital bed and whispered, "I might die soon. I'm not scared. When I die, please dress me in red. Mom promised she's coming to Heaven, too. I'll be playing when she gets there, and I want to make sure she can find me.
The Father's Eyes
Bob Richards, the former pole-vault champion,
shares a moving
story about a skinny young boy
who loved football with all his heart.
Practice
after practice, he eagerly gave everything he had.
But being half the
size of the other boys,
he got absolutely nowhere. At all the
games,
this hopeful athlete sat on the bench and hardly ever played.
This
teenager lived alone with his father,
and the two of them had a very
special relationship.
Even though the son was always on the bench,
his father was always in the stands cheering.
He never missed a game.
high school. But his father continued to encourage him but also made
it very clear that he did not have to play football if he didn't want to.
But the young man loved football and decided to hang in there. He
was determined to try his best at every practice, and perhaps he'd
get to play when he became a senior. All through high school he never missed
a practice nor a game but remained a bench-warmer all four years.
His
faithful father was always
in the stands,
always with words of encouragement for him.
When
the young man went to college,
he decided to try out for the football
team as a "walk-in."
Everyone was sure he could never make the cut,
but he did. The coach admitted that he kept him on the roster because
he always puts his heart and soul to every practice,
and at the same time,
provided the other members
with the spirit and hustle they badly
needed.
he rushed to the nearest phone and called his father.
His father
shared his excitement and was sent season tickets
for all the college
games.
This persistent young athlete never missed practice during his
four years at college, but he never got to play in a game.
It was the end of his senior football season,
and as he trotted onto the
practice
field shortly before the big playoff game,
the coach met him with a telegram.
The young man read the telegram and he became deathly silent.
Swallowing
hard, he mumbled to the coach,
"My father died this morning. Is it all right
if I miss practice today? "
The coach put his arm gently around his shoulder
and
said, "Take the rest of the week off, son.
And don't even plan to come back
to
the game on Saturday."
In the
third quarter, when the team was ten points behind,
a silent young man
quietly slipped into the empty locker room
and put on his football gear.
to see their faithful teammate back so soon.
Coach, please let me play.
I've just got to play today," said the young man.
The coach pretended not to hear him. There was no way he
wanted his worst player in this close playoff game. But the young man
persisted, and finally feeling sorry for the kid, the coach gave in.
"All
right," he said. "You can go in."
Before long, the coach, the players and everyone in the stands
could not believe their eyes. This little unknown, who had never
played before was doing everything right.
The opposing team could not
stop him.
He ran, he passed, blocked, and tackled like a star.
His
team began to triumph. The score was soon tied.
In the closing
seconds of the game,
this kid intercepted a pass and ran all the way for the
winning touchdown.
The fans broke loose. His teammates hoisted
him onto their shoulders.
Such cheering you never heard.
Finally, after the stands had emptied and the team had
showered and left the locker room,
the coach noticed that this young man was
sitting quietly in the corner all alone.
The coach came to him and said,
"Kid, I can't believe it.
You were fantastic! Tell me what got into you?
How did you do it?"
He looked at the coach, with tears in his eyes, and said, "Well,
you knew my dad died, but did you know that my dad was blind?"
The
young man swallowed hard and forced a smile,
"Dad came to all my games,
but today was the first time he could see me play,
and I wanted to
show him I could do it!"
INFORMATION PLEASE
When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in
our neighborhood. I remember well the polished old case fastened to
the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too
little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination
when my mother used to talk to it.
Look in Your Heart
A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming
home after having fought in Vietnam. He called his
parents from San Francisco. "Mom and Dad, I'm coming
home, but I've a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like
to bring home with me." "Sure," they replied, "we'd love
to meet him."
Please Dress Me In Red
In my dual profession as an educator and an health care provider, I have worked with numerous children infected with the virus which causes AIDS. The relationships which I have had with these special kids have been gifts in my life. They have taught me so many things, but I especially learned that great courage can be found in the smallest of packages. Let me tell you about Tyler.
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