Family

[82Rigger]

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
"Oh excuse me, please," was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too;
I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said good-bye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the way!", I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger,
common courtesy you use,
but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.
He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.


"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."
He said, "Oh, Mom, that's okay.
I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too,
and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

FAMILY
Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company
that we are working for could easily replace us in
a matter of days.
But the family we left behind will feel the loss
for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more
into work than into our own family,
an unwise investment indeed,
don't you think?

[DMZ-LT]

" The bond that links your true family is not one of blood but of respect and joy in each each others life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof ........ there is a link between us , between you and me and the others of our family " Bach.

[Jerry D]

Amen to that

[revwardoc]

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&sect...tegory=Kingdom

Elderly Parents Abandoned at Hospitals

JEDDAH, 3 February 2005 ? Some elderly Saudis are being disposed of by their families who dump them off in front of area hospitals and speed away, leaving doctors furious and flabbergasted by this bizarre, cruel behavior.

Recently, three separate families abandoned their parents ? and their responsibilities ? at King Fahd Hospital.

In an incident at the hospital on Tuesday, a woman in her late 80s who was abandoned by her son there 10 days earlier was reunited with him. During her hospital stay, officials tried several times to get in touch with her family, who denied her existence.

Security guards were able to trace her taxi-driver son who ditched her at the hospital. He was recognized as a regular visitor to the premises, frequently dropping off passengers at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) entrance.

The man arrived at the hospital accompanied by his young son, and when confronted by hospital officials he denied any relation to the old woman despite her enthusiastic greetings.

?Waleed,? she cried.

?After checking the man?s ID we established that, in fact, it was his name,? said the Dr. Abdul Malik Al-Huti, head of the ICU.

If there was any doubt, the little boy put it to rest.

?When we brought in the young child accompanying his father, he took one look at her and said she was his grandmother.?

After officials had a long, generally unpleasant discussion with ?Waleed,? he reclaimed his mom.

Not all of the elderly are so lucky.

?Uncle Hamed,? as he?s called at the hospital, was abandoned during Ramadan and still lies on a King Fahd Hospital bed. He is blind, emaciated and 87 years old.

Officials have tried to find a person to contact, but the man has no identification ? and no one knows who left him at the hospital.

?We found one number in his pocket, which led us to an Arab neighbor who once cared for Hamed, but he didn?t have the capability to care for him,? a hospital official said.

His neighbors said Ahmad used to have a son living with him, but the man no longer lives in his house and has not been seen for a while.

And then there?s the man who checked in for a checkup who won?t check out.

Hamed Al-Kayyal, a Saudi in his 50s, has been in the hospital for nearly two months for no medical reason.

?He refuses to leave and has caused us lots of problems,? said Dr. Al-Huti. ?We have tried to contact his family many times, but no one cares.?

Dr. Al-Huti authorized three meals a day for him but told him that doctors would not tend to his imaginary complaints. That didn?t work too well.

?Somehow he still manages to get doctors? attention to give him daily checkups,? Dr. Al-Huti said. ?This phenomenon of abandonment by families of their elders is new in our community,? he said, ?and it is unacceptable to the majority of Saudi society.?