A nurse escorted a tired, anxious young man to the bedside of an elderly man.” Your son is here,” she whispered to the patient. She had to repeat the words several times before the patient’s eyes opened. He was heavily sedated- he was in pain following a heart attack- and he dimly saw the young man standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand and the young man tightly wrapped his fingers around it, squeezing a message of encouragement. The nurse placed a chair by the bed. All through the night the young man sat holding the old man’s hand, speaking gently. The dying man said nothing as he held tightly to his son. At dawn, the patient died. The young man placed on the bed the lifeless hand he had been holding, and then he went to notify the nurse. Once she finished with the formalities, the nurse murmured words of sympathy. The young man interrupted to ask: “Who was that man?” The startled nurse replied,” I thought he was your father”. “No, he was not my father,” he answered.” I never saw him before in my life.” “Then why didn’t you say something when I took you to him:” asked the nurse. He replied,” I knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn’t here. When I realised he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, I knew how much he needed me….”