This Inspiring Story Is A Warning To Everyone With Elderly Parents

May 23, 2018

Today, a son sits with his elderly father. As they basked in the early morning sun, the Harvard-educated son’s thoughts were quietly consumed with his coffee, the morning paper, bills due, bills he wanted to create, and all the happenings of the world as it might impact him.

Suddenly, a tiny sparrow perched on the railing near his elderly father. Intrigued, the father pointed and asked his son what the tiny creature might be, to which the son replied that it was a sparrow. The father nodded his head in recognition, and the son returned to his paper and thoughts.

Moments later, the father again pointed to the tiny creature on the railing and asked his son, “what is this?”
 

“Father, I’ve just told you that it’s a sparrow.” 

The father nodded his head in recognition and the son once again returned to his paper and thoughts.

Not long had passed before the son once again heard his father’s excited voice ask, “what is this?” The son crumbled his paper and, with great irritation, told his father, “I’ve told you twice before, father, that it’s a sparrow.... a sparrow... a sparrow.” After his father nodded understanding, the son smoothed his paper and attempted to remember his place of reading.

Just as the son’s focus returned to where he’d left off reading, the father’s excited voice yet again asked, “what is this?” This time the son balled up his paper while shouting at his father. “I’ve told you each time that it’s a sparrow; why do you continue to ask me the same question over and over and over. Can you not understand that it’s a bird, specifically a sparrow?”

Feeling dejected, but reminded of something important, the father left for his room. It wasn’t long before the father returned with a book in his hand. Tattered binding strings and yellowed pages showed its age and use were great, and the care with which he handed it over to his son warranted the son’s reverence as he accepted it. “Read, my son,” was all the father said as he left his son to explore the book alone.

On the first page, the son read of his own birth, including all the proud and loving adjectives and vows of fatherly devotion. All the son’s temper abandoned him as he read his father’s daily diary. He noticed a page had been marked and turned to read this entry:

“My son and I were sitting quietly today, me reading my paper and him coloring, when a sparrow lit on the window’s ledge. At just three-years-old, he’s so curious about everything. It’s endearing, which is why I lovingly replied that it was a sparrow all 25 times he asked me. Today, he learned a sparrow. Yesterday, he learned a worm, albeit it took 32 times of replying, ‘it’s a worm, son,’ not 25 times. I cannot wait to discover the learning tomorrow brings for him and how many times of ‘it’s’ it takes to get there.”

Today, the son learned patience, respect, and humility, not as a son, but as a caretaker. Annoyance and irritation could’ve easily been thrust upon his own curious mind yesterday as it was his father’s mind today. Instead, his father met his son’s mental state with kindness, patience, and love.

The lesson is clear. As parents age and their mental state becomes less than it once was, do not meet this need with anger or view it as a burden. Make the time and have the patience to care for them as they did for you.

Has your relationship with a parent changed as they grew older? How have you handled it? Show this to them to show that you will always be patient and loving with them, no matter how old they are!