Helping a friend

He thanked me again and again, and I thought the corner of his eyes became a little damp. He had a relieved look on his face, relieved and grateful, as if a weighty wish of his had just been answered. "Thank you so much, thank you..."

  He's a colleague of mine at my institute, and almost daily we sit down at the office and share whatever food either of us have brought together. The lunches are a joy, something I look forward to, as there is nothing like sharing food and pleasant company and conversation. Older than me, he is a good friend who often makes me laugh, and who gives me advice like a wise father figure. The work he does day in and day out is just enough to support himself here, so at times he has difficulty for other things. Often he talks about his family, who are spread out around the globe, and how much he misses them. And I can empathise, for growing up my family was also split between different countries, and I believe I can understand that desperate sense of separation and longing to be together.

So the other day, as he was talking about how much he'd like to go see his two daughters at Christmas, I offered to help. I have the means, fortunate as I am, and those couple of hundred dollars would be sitting there in my account, being fed on by the bank. So wouldn't it be wonderful if that couple of  hundred dollars could realise the wish of a caring and loving father who wants to spend Christmas with his daughters?

"Go," I said, "There is nothing more special than spending Christmas with family and the people you love..."

And it's true. No price, no amount of money can buy those precious moments together, huddled around a warm dinner table, basking in the laughter and joy of loved ones.

Nothing is as precious, nothing can be more memorable. Nothing is more beautiful than a family reunited.