Gone and Forgotten?

Member of the hospital board? That's important. The hands that delivered hundreds and maybe thousands of babies into the world? That's important. Recognized and awarded throughout the years for outstanding service and community building? That's important. Biggest house on the block? That's important.

And yet, the father of my friend, who was the character in that play, stood nameless in the same hospital he was a board member for. His wife had a terrible injury, and the young new doctors bustled around without a single acknowledgement of the wealth and honour and years of slaving in the name of medicine that her husband represented just a short few years prior.

A quick realization - nobody cares. The world is quick to honour and lift above and congratulate when you mean something to them - but worldly honour is as quickly forgotten as it is given.

His wife looked at him with adoration, however. So grateful that he stood there beside her in her time of need. Had he missed these opportunities throughout their life because her quiet gratitude paled in comparison to the pats on the back colleagues had so often given?

But who was there now? His children. His wife. They are the only ones to remember, in the end.