Never Give Up

A long time ago an old woman tripped and fell from the top of a stone stairway in Boston as she was coming out of the police station. They called the patrol and carried her to the hospital and the doctor examining her said to the nurse, “She will not live more than a day.” And when the nurse had won her confidence the old woman said, “I have traveled from California, stopping at every city of importance between San Francisco and Boston, visiting two places always—the police station and the hospital. My boy went away from me and did not tell me where he was going, so I have sold all my property and made this journey to seek him out. Some day,” she said, “he may come into this hospital, and if he does tell him that there were two who never gave him up.” When the night came and the doctor standing beside her said, “It is not but a question of a few minutes,” the nurse bent over her to say, “Tell me the names of the two and I will tell your son if I see him.” With trembling lips and eyes overflowing with tears she said, “Tell him that the two were God and his mother.”

—J. Wilbur Chapman