Real Love.

Real love.

She lay in her room in the maternity ward, tired but happy as she had shortly before given birth to her first child, a baby boy.

 She asked the nurse “Can I see my baby?”

When her baby was handed to her he was wrapped in a little blanket, she nestled him into her arms and folded back the blanket so she could look upon his little features.

She gave a sudden gasp; the nurse quickly turned and looked out of the hospital window.  The baby had been born without any ears.

As time passed the baby grew and his hearing proved to be perfect. However, his appearance caused people to stare.  One day he ran into the house and flung himself into his mother’s arms, he was very upset and began to cry. He told her that he was being bullied at school, the other children called him a freak and laughed at him, no one wanted to be his friend and some of the bigger boys hit him.  The mother could only hold him tightly and tell him how much she loved him and it was the other children who were just being cruel for she knew that his life would be a succession of heartbreaking episodes like this one.

Time continued to pass and the young boy grew up to be a handsome young man although he still stood apart from his classmates.  He was looked upon as a great favourite by his fellow students and it was said that had it not been for his unfortunate appearance he could have been student president.  He discovered that he had a great gift for literature and music; however, he didn’t pursue it for fear of having to mix with other people and risk ridicule.

His father went to see the family doctor and asked him if anything could be done to help his son.  The doctor said,

“I believe that it is possible to graft on a pair of outer ears, but we would need to find a donor that would be a match”.

The search began but who would consider such a sacrifice for a young man.  The years passed, and then one day his father spoke to him,

“You’re never going to believe this son, but your mother and I have found someone who has agreed to donate the ears you need. However, they have one condition. You cannot know who this person is as it must remain a secret”

The operation was a brilliant success and the young man emerged as a new person.  His talents blossomed into genius, and his time at college became a series of triumphs.  Later on he married and became an extremely successful business man. 

One day, he sat down with his father and asked him a question “Who gave so much for me, who was my donor?  Please tell me as I feel that I must do something to thank them. Even though I don’t believe I could ever do enough”

“Son, I’m sorry but the agreement we made was that you were not to know, not yet.  However, you are right in one thing, that act of kindness done could never be repaid”

Time passed and eventually the day came that the secret could at last be revealed, that dark day that all of us must face in one way or another.  On the day that the young man stood with his father by the side of his mother’s coffin in church.  Slowly, tenderly, his father stretched forth a hand and raised the thick, red hair to reveal that the mother had no outer ears.

“Your mother said she was glad that she never let anyone cut her hair” he whispered gently, “and nobody ever thought she was any less beautiful, did they?”

Real beauty lies not in your physical appearance, but in the heart.  It is not what can be seen, but what can’t be seen. Real love lies not in what is done and known but in what is done and not known.