The Window of the Hospital

Two men, both seriously ill occupied the same room of the hospital. One man was allowed to sit up on his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window.
 
The other patient had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours about their families and about their homes where they had been on vacation.
 
An every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window. The man in the other bed began to live for that one hour period where his world would be broadened and enlivened
by all the activity and color of the world outside.
 
The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water when children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm in the place where there were flowers of every colour of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of
the city sky line could be seen in the distance.
 
As the man by the window was describing all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the pictures of scene.
 
On the warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind's eyes as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with the descriptive words. Days and weeks passed in the same way
 
One morning the nurse came in only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died in his sleep peacefully. She was saddened by the death and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved to the place next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch. After making sure he could feel
comfortable, she left him alone. Slowly and painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the world outside. Finally he would have the joy of seeing it for himself. He strained to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. When the nurse came in, the man asked her what could have compelled his demised roommate to describe such wonderful things outside the window. She replied that the man was blind and could not even see the wall. She further said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you." The story means that there is tremendous happiness in making other people happy despite our own difficult situations. Shared grief is half the sorrow, is doubled. People will forget what you said. People will also forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.