My little Angel taught me a Lesson

My elder son is a doctor, after graduation he married, then his wife gave birth to a wonderful child, they named him Basheer. They lived with us for six years, we were very happy to see our grandchild growing among us, he felt loved and secured among us, and learned good, morals and he had a solid foundation for his future, because children need strength to lean on, a shoulder to cry on, and a living  example to learn from .Then my son decided to travel to Germany, where he can continue his studying, so they moved on.

My grandson is now eight years old, two days ago, his father told me a story about his son, I want to share this story with you.

He said: When I reached home, I found my wife shouting at my son as to take his lunch, and he was crying, he didn’t want to eat. I asked him to eat, he refused, and then I told that he will not grow, and may become sick and many kind words of love, again he refused. Suddenly, he wiped his tears with the back of his hands and said ‘’Dad, if I eat will you give me whatever I ask for? ‘’ I said, yes, then he asked his mother to do so, and she did.

We gave him our promise, but we asked him that he shouldn’t insist on getting a computer or any such expensive items. He said: no, dad I don’t want anything expensive, slowly and painfully, he finished eating the whole quantity of his food.

After the ordeal was through, he came to me with his eyes wide with expectation; all our attention was on him, ‘’Dad, I want to visit two of my friends for a while ,please can you take me ‘’ I said : ok, I took him to his first visit, but he asked me, not to enter, then a boy in his age, came out and rode the car in with him, we went to another house, where another friend was waiting for us ,they rode the car in, then they asked me to go to the barber ,I was astonished , but I did, they asked the barber to have their hair cut, I tried to interfere, but he reminded me, that my promise must be kept. I closed my mouth, because he would never learn to honor his promise. They went out with their head clean-shaven, but they were still very nice.

The next day, I dropped him off to his school. It was indeed a scene to watch my hairless boy with two hairless friends walking towards their classroom, they turned around and waved, I waved back with a smile, just then, a boy alighted from a car, and shouted,’’ Basheer please wait for me!’’ what struck me was the hairless head of that boy, ‘’may be, that is a new style, or may be the fashion ‘’ I thought.

‘’Sir, your son is great indeed’’ without introducing herself, a lady got out of the car, and continued, ‘’That boy who is walking along with your son is my son Hanse, he is suffering from Leukemia” ,she paused to muffle her sobs “ Hanse could not attend the school for the whole of the last month, he lost all his hair due to the side effects of the chemotherapy, he refused to come back to school, fearing the unintentional but cruel teasing of the schoolmates. Basheer visited him last week, and he promised him that he would take care of the teasing issue, but I never imagined he would persuade his friends, and all to sacrifice their hair for the sake of my son”. I stood transfixed, I wept,” my little angel taught me a lesson” then he continued “the first seven years of a child is the most important, they shape his morals”

At last I say: No one has yet fully realized the sympathy, kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child, the effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.

      Butheina Alnounou                                                                              bossynounou@yahoo.com