JUDGE ME BY THE FOOTPRINTS I LEAVE BEHIND

(author unknown to me)

A story is told about a soldier who was finally coming home after
having  fought in  Vietnam.
He called his parents from San Francisco.  "Mom and Dad, I'm coming home,
but I've got a favor to ask. I have a friend I'd like to bring with me."
"Sure," they replied, "we'd love to meet him."
"There's something you should know," the son continued, " he was hurt
pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mined and lost an arm
and a leg.  He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with
us."
"I'm sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to
live."
"No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us."
"Son," said the father, "you don't know what you're asking. Someone with
such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives
to live, and we can't
let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just
come home and forget about this guy. He'll find a way to ive on his own."
At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more
from him.
A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco
police. Their son had died after falling from a building,  they were
told. The police believed it was suicide.
The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken  to the
city morgue to identify the body of their son.They  recognized him, but
to their horror they also discovered something they didn't know,  their
son had only one arm and one leg.