(This story came from a doctor who works at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, England)
It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80's, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb.
He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.
I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him.
I saw him looking at his watch, and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, gotthe needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.
While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.
The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.
I inquired as to her health; he told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.
As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late.
He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.
I was surprised, and asked him, 'And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are'?
He smiled as he patted my hand and said, 'She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is'.
Karma Stories
One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house. However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal, he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, "how much do i owe you?" You dont owe me anything,"she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness given." He said... "Then I thank you from my heart."
As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Years later that young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally send her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately, he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctors gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to the case.
After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the edge and bill was sent to her room.
She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all. Finally, she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words.. "Paid in full with one glass of milk"
(signed)Dr. Howard Kelly
* * *
(This story came from a letter to Ann Landers)
Dear Ann
Thirty years ago, my husband and I and our eight children moved from a small town in Pennsylvania to a much larger city in New Jersy. Just when we arrived, the employees at my husband's company went on strike.
When my husband went to our new landlord, Mr. Kirby, to pay our rent, the landlord told him he dedn't need to make the payment. Mr. Kirby had heard the company was on strike. What a comfort he was.
Recently, our daughter, who is a nurse for an eye surgeion, foun she had Mr. Kirby as a patient. He is now 89 and was very nervous about his surgery.
Our daughter told him who she was and he remembered us. Needless to say, she gave him special attention.
Isn't it amazing how God took a small act of kindness and arranged to have it paid back after so many years?
-A.B., Plant City, Fla.
* * *
One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you. He said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.”
Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.
Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.
He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, “And think of me.”
He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.
After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.”
Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard….
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”
There is an old saying “What goes around comes around.”
* * *
Zion was a kid born with physical and mental disabilities. One day, Zion was walking across the park with his father when he saw a few other boys, whom he knew personally, playing baseball. Zion asked his father, "Do you think they will let me play with them?"
Zion's father realized that most of the kids would not want to have someone like Zion on their team. Of course, he hoped that they will let his son join them, for it would allow his son to obtain a sense of belonging that he desperately needed, as well as build confidence that he is accepted despite being physically and mentally challenged. He wasn't optimistic about the boys letting his son play, but he decided to ask anyways. So he approached one of the boys, without any real hope, and asked if Zion could join them. The boy looked around at his teammates and said, "It is the top of the 8th inning and we are trailing by 6. I guess he can join our team, and we will think of a way to let him play in the 9th inning."
Zion was full of joy as he slowly, and with a lot of difficulty, went to his team's dugout area and put on his team's jersey. Tears were coming out of the father's eyes, as he saw how happy and excited his son was. The other boys also saw the joy in the father that his son was being accepted. By the bottom of the 8th inning, Zion's teammates were only trailing by 3.
Zion put on the baseball glove at the top of the 9th inning and became the right fielder. Although there were balls hit in his direction and he didn't catch any balls, he was very excited just to be able to stay on the field. And when his father waved at him from the stands, he couldn't hide his smile at all.
When it was the bottom of the 9th inning, the bases were loaded when Zion came to the plate to bat. In such an important point of the game, would they let Zion hit while giving up the opportunity to win the ball game? Surprisingly, they indeed handed the bat to Zion, even though everyone understood that he could not hit the ball because he didn't even know how to grab the bat properly.
By the time Zion stepped to the batter's box, the opposing pitcher already realized that Zion's teammates had sacrificed the opportunity of winning the game for the most important moment in Zion's life. So he took a few steps forward, and threw a very slow pitch at Zion, so that he could at least touch it. Zion swung clumsily at the first pitch and missed. So the pitcher took another few steps towards Zion, and threw him another slow pitch. This time, Zion swung at it and hit it slowly back at the pitcher's direction. Everyone expected the game to be over soon when the pitcher picked up the slow-roller, as he could have ended the game by flipping the ball to the first-base-man. However, the pitcher threw it high above the head of the first baseman so that no one could catch it. Everyone in the stands, no matter who they were originally cheering for, started to yell, "Zion, run to first base! Run to first base! Run to first base!" Zion had never run such a long distance in his life, but he managed to successfully get to first base. His eyes were wide opened when he stepped on the bag, and he looked very surprised too. Then everyone started yelling, "Zion, run to second base! Run to second base!" Zion stumbled towards second base as he was still catching his breath. While Zion was running towards second base, the right fielder, who was the shortest on his team, had picked up the ball and could have thrown to second base and became a hero himself. But he realized what his pitcher was thinking, so he also intentionally threw the ball above the head of the third baseman. While all the base runners in front of Zion had scored, he was still stumbling towards third base. Everyone was yelling, "Zion, keep running, Keep running! The short-stop on the other team was helping to guide Zion to third base and he kept yelling, "Run to third base, Zion, run to third base." When Zion finally arrived at third base, players from both teams and everyone in the stands were up and yelling, "Zion, run home! Run home!
When Zion ran back and stepped onto home plate, everyone was cheering for him as a hero because he had won the game with a grand slam. His father was in tears and he said softly, "The boys from both teams have brought true love and glory of humanity into this world."
Zion lived for another summer and passed away that winter. However, he never forgot that day... the day he brought every one such excitement, and how his mother was crying and hugging him when he got home.
A wise person once said, "To evaluate a society, one must see how that society treats it's most unfortunate members."
Sometimes, winning or losing is not really that important.
