HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER

Note: This story is just one of seventeen taken from a novel by JAlexander called “SHIPWRECK”  

 “Honor thy father and mother – that thy days be long in the land which the Lord gives thee.” (The Fifth Commandment)

The sign didn’t exactly bestow confidence in David; as a matter of fact, it was a little intimidating. Mustering all his courage, he opened the little white gate and walked the twenty or so feet to the front steps. After a slight hesitation, he started climbing, thinking to himself, “Oh well, I’ve come this far; I may as well see this through.”

Standing at the front door, David wasn’t worried that someone might hurt him physically; but what he did know was that a person’s hurtful words could cut you right to the bone.

After taking a deep breath, he knocked three times and then waited. When he didn’t hear any movement from inside the house, he thought, “Now what’ll I do? Should I leave, wait or knock again?”

His question was answered by a voice from the other side of the door. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“Hello, my name is David and I was wondering if I could talk to you for a few moments?”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“I was told you could help me. I have a major ‘Anger’ problem.”

The door opened just a little and an unshaven, and very worried looking man said, “Take a seat over there and I will be with you in a minute.”

David had just settled into one of the patio chairs when a short little balding man came out of the house. Sitting down across from David he asked, “Can I get you anything?”

Without waiting for a reply, he stood up and put out his hand saying, “Hi, my name is Sammy. I’ll guess I’ll start by telling you my story and then you can tell me how I can help you?”

He shared his story! “Sad to say, I’ve lived in this small town all my life. My Mom died a few years ago and my Dad took it pretty hard. After a few years he seemed to be coming around and then one day I noticed he was acting very strange. I thought it was Alzheimer’s taking over his mind.”

As he spoke, he spread out a bunch of cards on the patio table. “Anyway, I had to work every day so Pop was alone most of the time. Although he never talked about what he did during the day, I could see that he was reverting back to his childhood. Every day when I got home, I’d find him sitting in the kitchen and he would be covered from head to toe in dirt. I also noticed that he had cuts, blisters and calluses from his elbows to his fingertips.”

“This went on for quite a while until one day, in the middle of the summer, I received a call from the fire department advising me that there was a fire that had started in the kitchen at my home. The worst part about it was that the front and back doors were wide open, but there was no one in the house. The smoke alarm went off and the fire department was called. Dad showed up just after the firemen, admitting that he had put something on the stove but then got busy and forgot all about it.”

“I arranged to have a meeting with the fire chief and my alarm company. They suggested I consider hiring someone to be with my dad all day or place him in a home.”

“When I returned home from work that evening, my dad was nowhere to be found; I started walking up the street and, in a few minutes, I located him. He was carrying an old beat up vacuum cleaner. He smiled when he saw me but I wasn’t smiling. I was very angry that he was out in public dragging around garbage like a homeless person. I grabbed his arm and told him to throw that dirty old thing in the garbage. Hanging onto the vacuum cleaner like a spoiled child, he insisted, ‘I’m going to fix it up as good as new’.”

“My anger was getting the best of me as I dragged and pushed my once very proud father along the street to our home.”

“When we got into the hallway, I let my father have it. ‘You’re embarrassing me, Dad! People are laughing at you, don’t you care? If you don’t stop what you’re doing, I’m going to have to put you in a home where they know how to treat people like you, who have lost their mind’.”

His story went on; “Dad was looking down at the floor and not paying any attention to me. This made me so angry that I knocked the vacuum out of his hand. As he stood there like a little child, I shouted at him, ‘I’m tired of looking after you; why don’t you do us both a favor and die’?”

“As Dad got down on one knee, and started picking up the pieces of the vacuum cleaner, he looked up at me and said, ‘I’m sorry I disappointed you son’. That was the last thing I heard him say, as he grabbed his chest and fell quietly to the floor.”

“I was so scared I didn’t know what to do! I had never witnessed anyone having a heart attack so I just rolled him over and begged him to get up.   As I knelt beside him, I cried, ‘Please don’t die Dad; I didn’t mean what I said.’

“After a few minutes, reality set in, and I rushed to the phone and called 911. I knew in my heart that the call was not an emergency, because like my mom, my father was now in heaven and I was left to spend the rest of my life all alone.”

“There were about fifteen people that day at the cemetery as we laid my father to rest next to mom. After the ceremony, I was surprised at all the wonderful things people were saying about my dad. That evening, I read the cards and realized that my father was not the mentally disturbed man I thought he was, on the contrary; he was loved by all who knew him. He wasn’t roaming the streets looking for garbage; he was repairing things and helping his neighbors with their everyday chores; people like old man Oliver with his garden or John O’Malley who was fixing up an old car for his son to drive. As a matter of fact, almost everyone who lived on Anger Street got help from my father at one time or another.”

Unable to say anything to comfort Sammy, David stood up and started walking down the stairs. For some unknown reason he could clearly see the Bible showing the commandment of honoring your parents. It read: “that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” If you continue to honor your parents through your lifetime, your children will see the example and hopefully get the message.

John 15:5 – Apart from me, you can do nothing!

By JAlexander