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WE parents who love and are dedicated to our children
plan for their future. We make sure they are well fed, get a good
education and we offer them as many opportunities to develop
themselves as possible. And some of us parents even plan for them
after we pass away. We might train them to take over our business or
some other family endeavor. We even make provision for them in our
will.
All that is well and good, but
blessed is the parent who leaves behind a legacy a child can live by
and be successful and happy. I thought of this when I came across a
touching story in the International Herald Tribune. It is about a US
Army Sergeant, Charles King, who left for Iraq for another tour of
duty. The sergeant left behind a pregnant woman who was carrying his
son. King had a feeling that he might not return alive, so he
prepared his son for life without him.
First he began to write a
200-page journal for his son in case he would not make it back.
“Dear son,” he wrote on the last page of his journal, “I hope
this book is somewhat helpful to you. Please forgive me for the poor
handwriting and grammar. I tried to finish this book before I was
deployed to Iraq. It has to be something special to you. I have been
writing it in the States, Kuwait and Iraq.”
I was touched by what this
battle-hardened soldier wrote to his unborn son. He had dreams for
his boy, but dreams about the kind of man he would grow up to be. He
wrote about values and right attitudes, no doubt believing that if
his son had these, the rest would follow and he would become
successful and happy.
“Never be ashamed to cry,” he
wrote, “no man is too good to get on his knees and humble himself
before God. Follow your heart and look for the strength of a good
woman.
“In neat block letters,” says
the author of the article, “he wrote about failure, heartache and
hope. He offered tips on how to behave on a date and where to hide
money on vacation. Rainy days have their pleasures, he noted:
‘Every now and then you get lucky and catch a rainbow.’”
Sergeant King was a complete
gentleman when it came to women. It was something he expected of his
son. “Remember,” he wrote, “who taught you to speak, to walk
and be a gentleman. These are your first teachers, my little prince.
Protect them, embrace them and always treat them like a queen.”
He was a black man who had
suffered from discrimination, but harbored no bitterness. “It’s
not fair to judge someone by the color of the skin, where they are
raised or their religious beliefs,” he wrote. “Appreciate people
for who they are and learn to appreciate their differences.”
King was a religious man. “God
blessed me above all I could imagine,” he wrote in his journal.
When he sent his journal to the mother of his unborn baby, he wrote,
“This is the letter every soldier should write. For us, life will
move on through our son. He will be an extension of us and hopefully
everything we stand for. I would like him to grow up to be a man,
but only God knows what the future holds.”
Sergeant King was killed in Iraq.
If you have problems about
drugs, alcohol and behavior/attitude call my office at 820-6107 or
825-1771 or e-mail me at gvcbuenca@vasia.com
or write me at P.O. Box 2099 MCPO, Makati City.
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