Respect Your Parents ( A Short Story Must Read )
When his father died, the Son abandoned his mother to the old age home and paid a visit concerning her on and off.
After one day he got a call of old age home…..Mom very serious…. please come to see.
Son visited mom, but found the woman quite critical on a dying bed.
He said, Mom what is there I can do with you?
Mom replied… Kindly get fans fitted in the old age home and there are none.. There is also a fridge added to improve on food since on numerous occasions I slept without food”.
Son felt surprised and questioned: mom, when you were here you never complained, and now you have got just a few hours to live, why are you telling me all this?
Mom said….it is o.K dear, I have coped with the heat, the hunger and the pain although I am a bit afraid you will not cope in case your children will take you here!
She threatened me so much to be careful about what I left behind and she said that this is the reason why she wanted to modernize the old age home since she feared that my children would one day leave me there and I would suffer as she did. Her last message was, What you sow is what you reap.
The message in this story is very strong regarding Sacrifice of the parent, the ignored feelings of the aged and the circularity of life. It is the selfless action when the mother on her deathbed not only testifies of her true love but also serves as a lesson of warning to the importance of karma and family values granted through generations.
Her refusal to speak about her discomfort earlier demonstrates that the mother did not want to make her son feel burdened, and this is one of the signs of resilience and silent endurance adopted by many parents. Nevertheless, in her dying words she is worried about something other than herself and it is about the future of her son, where she felt that he can become as neglected as she was.
The final wish of the mother that she would have better in the old age home through fans and fridge is a indirect reminder to the son as to how he can go about doing the same. Her philosophy and intuition stress that life comes so that it brings the kind of treatment we treat people. Her emotional saying, What you give is what you get, highlights a global reality, and this encourages us to do it as we treat others with compassion and respect, in particular, our parents. It is the message to be aware of the sacrifices they make and we need to appreciate their presence sooner rather than later.