A Friend killed in Vietnam

Too Busy for a Friend.....

 One day a teacher asked her students to list the names

of the other students in the room on two sheets

of paper, leaving a space between each

name.

 Then she told them to think of the nicest thing

they could say about each of their classmates and write

it down. 

 It took  the remainder of the class period to

finish their assignment, and as the students left

the room, each one  handed in the

papers.

 That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of

each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed

what everyone  had said about that

individual.

 On Monday she gave each student his or her list.

Before long, the entire class was smiling.

'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant

anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so

much,' were most of the comments. 

 No one ever  mentioned those papers in class

again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or

with their parents, but it didn't matter. The

exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy

with themselves and one another. That group of students

moved on. 

 Years later, one of the students was

killed in Vietnam and his teacher attended the funeral of

that special  student. She had never seen a

serviceman in a military coffin before. He looked so

mature.

 The church was packed with his friends. One by one

those who loved him  took a last walk by the coffin. The

teacher was the last one to bless the

coffin.

 As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted

as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's

math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said:

'Mark talked about you a lot.'

 After the funeral, most of Mark's former

classmates went together  to eat luncheon. Mark's mother and

father were there,  obviously waiting to speak with his  teacher.

 'We want to  show you something,' his father

said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found

this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might

recognize it.'

 Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two

worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously

been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher

knew without looking that the papers were the ones on

which she had listed all the good things each of

Mark's classmates had said  about him.

 'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's

mother said. 'As you can see, Mark kept this with him

 All of Mark's former classmates started to gather

around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said,

'I still have my  list. It's in the top drawer of

my desk at home.' 

 Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his

in our wedding album.' 

 'I have mine too,' Marilyn said 'It's in my diary' 

Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her

pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and

frazzled list to the  group. 'I carry this with me at

all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she

continued: 'I think we all saved our

lists' 

 That's when the teacher finally sat down and

cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who

would never see him again. 

 The density of people in society is so thick that

we forget that life will end one day. And we don't

know when that one day will be. 

So please, tell the people you love and care

for, that they are special and important. Tell them,

before it is too late. 

 And One Way To Accomplish This Is: Forward this

message on. If you do not send it, you will have, once

again passed up the wonderful  opportunity to do something nice and 

 If you've  received this, it is because someone

cares for you and it means there is probably at least

someone for whom you care.

 If you're 'too busy' to take those few minutes

right now to forward this message on, would this be the

VERY first time you  didn't do that little thing that

would make a difference in your relationships? 

 The more people that you send this to, the

better you'll be at reaching out to those you care

about.

 Remember, you reap what you sow. What you put into the

lives of others comes back into your

own.