BigZeroLittleZero

   A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.
  "Your son is here," she said to the old man.
  She had to repeat the words several times before the patients eyes opened.
  Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart
  attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed
  Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand.
  The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones,
  squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could
  sit beside the bed.All through the night
  the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward,holding the old
  man's hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the
  nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile.
  He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward,
  the Marine was oblivious of her and of
  the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of
  the oxygen tank,  the laughter of the night
staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and
  moans of the other patients.

Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words.
  The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the
night.
   Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine
  released the now lifeless hand he had
  been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she
  did what  she had to do,he waited.
  Finally, she returned. She started to offer words
  of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.
"Who was that man?" he asked. The nurse was
  startled, "He was your  father,"she answered.
  "No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."
  "Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"
  "I knew right away there had been a mistake, but I
  also knew he needed his son, and his
  son just wasn't here. When I realized that he was too sick
  to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how
  much he needed me,  I stayed."
  The next time someone needs you .. just be there.

  Stay.