After we sat down, I had to read the menu. Her eyes could only read large
print. Half-way through the entrees, I lifted my eyes and saw mother
sitting there and staring at me. A nostalgic smile was on her lips.
“It was I who used to read the menu when you were small”, she said.
“Then it’s time you relax and let me return the favour,” I responded.
During the dinner, we had an agreeable conversation nothing
extraordinary but catching upon recent events of each other’s life. We talked
so much that we missed the movie.
As we arrived at her house later, she said, “I’ll go out with you again,
but only if you let me invite you”.
I agreed.
“How was your dinner date?” asked my wife when I got home.
“Very nice, much more so than I could have imagined,” I answered.
A few days later, my mother died of a massive heart attack. It happened
so suddenly that I didn’t have a chance to anything for her.
Sometime later, I received an envelope with a copy of a restaurant
receipt from the same place mother and I had dined. An attached note said:
“I paid this bill in advance. I wasn’t sure that I could be there; but nevertheless,
I paid for two plates – one for you and the other for your wife. You will never
know what that night meant for me. I love you son”.
At that moment, I understood the importance of saying in time: ‘I love
YOU’ and togive our loved ones the time that they deserve.
Nothing in life is more important than your family. Give them the time
they deserve, because these things cannot be put off till some ‘other’ time.
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