27 | July | 2012 | Impressions

An aged mother crying

My Dearest Child,

May the almighty grant you patience to listen to what I am about to say.

Please understand that elderly people are a bit too sensitive.

I am sorry dear. Your dad and I are getting old. Age is creeping on us and our hands shake. So, I beg you not to yell at us if we drop the plate, spill coffee, tea or soup on the sofa, table or floor.

Since your father’s hearing is getting worse day by day, he can’t hear what you are saying. So, please don’t hurt his feelings by calling him “Deaf! ….”; instead please repeat patiently what you said or write it down.

In time to come we might wet our clothes, the bed or the sofa. Don’t scold us then.

When our knees get weaker, I pray you have the patience to help us get up from the chair or bed. I don’t think you can remember us helping you while you were learning to walk as a toddler.

We know you are busy with your work and your family. So, if you do have some spare time, can you talk to us just for a few minutes – in person or over the phone?

At times when your father or I keep repeating ourselves like a scratched gramophone record please bear with us. Please don’t make fun of us, or say that you are “getting sick of listening to” us. When you were little, we enjoyed hearing you repeat words and we encouraged you to do so and as we encourage your son to do so now.

Even if you’re not interested in our “repeating the same old stories,” please pretend that you enjoy listening to our rambling like we used to listen to your babbling when you were young?

Your father and I know that we are not going to last much longer, and we pray to God to grant you patience to take care of us during the last few moments of our life.

At the time of our death, will you please hold our hand to give us the strength to face death peacefully?

When we are dead don’t spend money and your precious time by burying us in a cemetery; instead donate our mortal bodies to a medical college where the students may profit by dissecting them.

After we die, when we finally meet our creator, we will whisper in His ear to bless you and your family because you loved your mother and father till their death.

Thank you so much for your care.

You’ll understand what I am saying now when you yourself get older.Never, ever forget that your father and I loved you and your family and will always love you all, forever and ever, from the “Bosom of Abraham“.

. By T.V. Antony Raj

Earlier this month, Damson Dene Hotel, in England’s Lake District, replaced in all 40 guest rooms, the ubiquitous bedside cabinet Gideon Bible with something a bit more modern, the soft-porn bestseller: “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E.L. James, a former TV executive, wife and mother of two based in West London.

The irony is that the Damson Dene Hotel, was purchased from a Methodist group 10 years ago. Its current owner, Jonathan Denby, apparently thought it inappropriate to distribute Bibles in today’s secular society and has explained his decision in a blog post:

“Tonight millions of women will be curling up in bed with a good book and you can bet your life it won’t be the Bible. More likely than not it will be Fifty Shades of Grey. I haven’t read the book yet – I’m not in the target audience – but I’m told it’s a ripping good yarn and everyone who’s in the target audience loves it. This made me wonder about the sense of providing a book, the Gideon Bible which no one reads, and many dislike, in the bedside cabinet of our hotel bedrooms, instead of a book which everyone wants to read, such as Fifty Shades of Grey.”

Denby said he did not do it for any philosophical reasons, and had considered substitutions for a long time. “I was thinking originally of putting in a book by Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged was my first thought,” Denby told NBC News.

Denby also said in his blog: “I’ll keep a couple behind the reception desk so that if any guest whose preferred bedtime reading happens to be the Bible finds that they have forgotten to pack their copy, they’ll be pleased to read in the guest handbook that they can borrow a copy from the receptionist.”

That hasn’t stopped the local vicar from publicly denouncing the change. Rev. Michael Woodcock, Local vicar and parish priest at St. Mary’s Church in Crosthwaite has publicly denounced the change. He told British media that the hotel’s decision is just a gimmick. “It is a shame that the Bible has been taken out,” he told the paper. “But I am sure it will be put back in the future. The more attention that is drawn to this the more bad publicity it gets.”

‘Fifty Shades of Grey‘ is all that people are talking about at the moment, but I know that some are too shy to buy it for themselves,” hotel manager Wayne Bartholomew told the Daily Mail. “I thought it would be a special treat for our guests to find it in their bedside cabinet and that includes the men too.”

“The Bible is a great read. It has stories which feature sex and violence, as well as comedy, tragedy, poetry, and prose. Its themes are eternal; they still speak directly into people’s lives centuries after it was written,” said a member of The Bible Society.