TWO WAGERS, TWO PARABLES - Chapter 30

Yesterday the story was about the loss of a father, so today's story is about the discovery of a father. Both stories are true.

This story is about a man who was visiting his mother who lived 700 miles away. As they reminisced about the past, the old photo box was brought out of the closet and a jumbled pile of pictures was spilled out on a table. Among the many photos was an infant picture, with the mans name on the back. The photo was crumbled and mangled, as if one of the childhood pets had gotten to it. The man asked his mother why she had hung onto such an abused photo when she had so many undamaged ones.

The mother explained that when she was ten months old her father contracted spinal bulbar polio and died three months after. At the age of 24 her father was totally paralyzed and he had to live inside a large steel cylinder that actually did his breathing for him. She shared that the one visitor who came faithfully was her mother and she would sit in a particular place so that he could see her in a mirror bolted to the bed. She went on to explain that during her fathers illness that photo was fastened to the iron lung. It had been jammed between some metal knobs and thus the condition of the picture.

The man shares how odd it seemed, that someone would care about someone, when in a sense, he had never met them. The mother went on to say that, during the last months of her fathers life he would spend all his waking hours staring at the picture. There was nothing else for him to do, the picture was the only thing in his line of sight. How else could a paralyzed father express love, especially when those that he loved, his infant daughter was banned from the hospital room? The mother shares that she often thinks of the crumpled photo, for it is the one link connecting her to the stranger who was her father.

Philip uses this story because it is his mother who has no memory of her father, no sensory knowledge of someone who spent all day, everyday thinking of her, loving her with everything. Her father looked at the picture of her as an infant, full of love and pride, and yet, she had no idea that he was watching over her.

Consider this... My Father, your Father full of love, pride, and care looking at us all day, everyday, and yet we have no idea that he is watching us so intently.

THE END!