Sometimes, life is too short. This article in the New Zealand Herald picked up a story about a father in Texas, USA. The article does not go into irrelevant details. It simply states, in words and an impressively stunning photo, the bond that a father and child share, in the moments before his death.
If only every mother could be so understanding of a man’s mortality and the frailty of life; both at it’s beginning and it’s end.
In our modern society, a healthy baby will live and thrive under the care of a surviving parent, or even without a parent. Strangely enough, it’s almost common-place to hear about a woman with, for instance, life-threatening hyper-clampsia not only surviving her pregnancy, but actually, getting released prior to her preemie. There’s plenty, already, to be thankful and joyful about. So, to know that a wife would induce labor for her terminally husband so that he can have the chance to hold–even for a moment–the human being to whom he helped give life, there are few words that could say more than “thank you.”
Yet–for a man–in receiving this gift, one’s frailty fades, one’s mortality is no longer relevant and the emotion of the moments of a life-time are reduced to tears that will have to last for this child for her whole new life. It is a simple, but important, gift that us men have to share.
This Valentine will, with hope, last for generations.
Penumbrook's Weblog 