This inspiring story of a young Marine who stays the night in the hospital to comfort an old man will touch your heart.
The elderly man is dying on the hospital bed and he wants his son by his side when he dies. However, the nurse makes a mistake.
This is not a real story.
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This short fiction was written by Roy Popkin in 1964, and published in the September 1965 edition of Reader’s Digest. The title of the fiction is “Night Watch.”
Since this is emotionally touching everyone’s heart, many people have shared the story online in 1990s with the various titles such as “Just Stay” and “He Needed a Son.” Also, the story has been reprinted in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Scroll down to read the story, but watch out; this would be more than what you expected. Please check if you have tissues near you.
A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside. “Your son is here,” she said to the old man.
She had to repeat the words several times before the patient’s eyes opened.
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Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand.
The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man’s limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.
The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed.
All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man’s hand and offering him words of love and strength.
Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile.
He refused.
Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital – the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.
Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words.
The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.
Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.
Finally, she returned. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her, “Who was that man?” he asked.
The nurse was startled, “He was your father,” she answered.
“No, he wasn’t,” the Marine replied. “I never saw him before in my life.”
“Then why didn’t you say something when I took you to him?”
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“I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here.
When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed.
I came here tonight to find a Mr. William Grey. His son was killed in Iraq today, and I was sent to inform him. What was this gentleman’s name?”
The nurse with tears in her eyes answered, “Mr. William Grey…”
A selfless act of Marine made the old man took his last breath with comfort. Even though this is a fiction, it still brought me tears.
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