It may be that the older we get the more this story will mean to
us. But we should learn it while we are young, for the sake of the
generation coming before us ...
Once there was a feeble old woman whose husband died and left her
all alone, so she went to live with her son and his wife and their
own little daughter.
Every day the old woman's sight dimmed and her hearing grew worse,
and sometimes at dinner her hands trembled so badly the peas rolled
off her spoon or the soup ran from her cup. The son and his wife
could not help but be annoyed at the way she spilled her meal all
over the table.
And one day, after she knocked over a glass of milk, they told each
other that enough is enough. They set up a small table for her in
the corner next to the broom closet and made the old woman eat her
meals there. She sat all alone, looking with tear-filled eyes
across the room at the others. Sometimes they spoke to her while
they ate, but usually it was to scold her for dropping a bowl or a
fork.
One evening just before dinner, the little girl was busy playing on
the floor with her building blocks, and her father asked her what
she was making. "I'm building a little table for you and mother,"
she smiled, "so you can eat by yourselves in the corner someday
when I get big."
Her parents sat staring at her for some time and then suddenly both
began to cry. That night they led the old woman back to her place
at the big table.
From then on she ate with the rest of the family, and her son and
his wife never seemed to mind a bit when she spilled something
every now and then.
