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 have 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.”
“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.
Moral: 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!
May 8, 2017 at 8:36 am
nice story
June 24, 2017 at 1:53 am
Nice story. We do not see or feel others’ pain because we are way too busy with ourselves.
August 28, 2017 at 6:50 am
this is my favourite story…. very sad
September 10, 2017 at 6:54 am
There is a song done about this. Would anyone no what it was called??? I’m having trouble finding it.
October 1, 2017 at 8:54 am
yaa very sad story . Every thing them self only . And they want to live easy without trouble .So plz thing about other point of view .
December 9, 2018 at 3:06 am
True story
If his parents would have reacted patiently to the situation , he would not hurt himself😔
January 13, 2019 at 3:35 pm
I think that this is very sad. His parents did not even know who their son was talking about, so they just told him that they would not take care of him. Then they realize that the friend that he is talking about is himself.
June 8, 2020 at 6:30 pm
Only if he had a chance to explain everything, he wouldn’t be dead.
It was his fault not parents.
December 7, 2020 at 11:25 am
Not to say more words,
A very nice story
January 9, 2021 at 11:57 am
Nice story.
Who is the writer of this story