A Retell Of “The Unconditional Love”
Living Without Knowing.
This story happened during the period of the Vietnam war. Here is my own different retelling of the story of “The Unconditional Love”:
One day, a couple received a long-distance call from their son. Their son had called to inform them that he was finally coming home from the long-drawn Vietnam war.
“That’s wonderful news, son!” came the first reaction from the father. “We shall see you soon.”
The son pondered for a while, and then said:
“Dad, I have a friend who is coming home to stay with us too. We became very good friends during the war.”
“Well, of course you can bring him to stay with us,” said the mother without any hesitation.
The son pondered again for a while, and then added:
“But he was seriously wounded and injured in the war and I would very much like to be around for him.”
The parents were silent for a moment.
“Seriously injured?” they thought to themselves.
The son then continued:
“He actually lost both his legs during the intense fighting.”
The parents were now lost for words and in their mind they felt it would really be tough moving forward for them to accept a physically handicapped person into their household.
“You know, my son, we would very much like to accommodate your friend in our humble abode but it would not be a good idea to have someone with a physical disability around the house and it will be difficult on us,” said the father.
After much persuasion from the son to allow his friend to stay with them, the parents still did not oblige to his request.
With the conversation locked in an impasse, the call ended abruptly and for a month long, nothing had been heard from their son.
Then one day, the parents received a call from their son who informed them that he was doing fine and staying with another friend. Every month without fail, the son would continue to call and inform his parents that he was doing fine and he would tell them not to worry about him. At the same time, he would also check on the well-being of his parents.
Another few months passed by and then came this day when the parents had a visitor knocking at their door.
When they opened the door, standing at the doorstep was a young man right about the same age as their son. The young man said:
“Nice to meet you. I am Andy. I am a very good friend of your son Jason. He has been staying with me for the past many months.”
Andy then informed the couple that Jason had been in ill health ever since his return from the war zone and that his health had deteriorated so much that he was now in a coma at the hospital.
When the parents rushed to the hospital with Andy, the son they saw at the hospital bed was not what they had anticipated. Lying on the bed was a physically handicapped Jason.
The young man explained:
“I am the ‘handicapped’ soldier that your son has told you about. I was never ‘handicapped’ during the war. It was actually Jason himself who lost both of his legs to a landmine.”
The moral of the story is that oftentimes we just could not accept people who have disabilities to integrate into our life because it inconveniences us. While Jason’s parents might not have been magnanimous nor sympathetic enough to accept any handicapped person into their household, we would all still believe that their own son would be an exception and they would definitely have accepted him to their home even if he was physically handicapped.
The story has not ended yet.
Here is the continuation.
The young man further explained:
“When I asked my own parents if they would allow my handicapped friend Jason to stay with us, they wholeheartedly accepted him without any further thought. All these months Jason has been staying with us and despite his ill health ever since returning from the war, he has always longed to be home with his own parents.”
The couple felt remorseful about how they reacted to that long-distance call from their son months ago.
That night, Jason did not come out of his coma and had passed on. His parents later found a note on him which read:
“To my dearest parents: Until today, I still believe my parents will never allow me to stay away from them if they know that I am the one who lost both my legs in the war. And at the same time I also know that my parents will have a real tough time taking care of me as there will definitely be inconveniences with a handicapped person around the house. And more importantly, I don’t want my parents to know how ill I am so that they don’t have to worry for me. So I decided to tell that white lie with a heavy heart because ‘Living Without Knowing’ is the best option for my parents.”
While most parents have unconditional love for their children, many children also have unconditional love for their parents.
Cheers everyone!
Writing moral stories helps me to constantly remind myself of what I am guilty of.
