Frank

The Creighton's were very proud of their son, Frank. When he went to college, naturally they missed him; but he wrote and they looked forward to his letters and saw him on weekends.

Then Frank was drafted into the Army. After he had been in the Army for five months, he received his call to go to Vietnam; of course, the parents' anxiety for his first letter was greater than ever before. And every week they heard from him and were thankful for his well-being.

Then one week went by without a letter then two then three. At the end of the third week a telegram came, saying, "We regret to inform you that your son has been missing for three weeks and is presumed to have been killed in action while fighting for his country.

The parents were shocked and grieved. They tried to accept the situation and go on living, but it was tragically lonesome without Frank.

About three weeks later, however, the phone rang. When Mrs Creighton answered it, a voice on the end said, "Mother, its Frank, they found me, and I'm going to be all right. I'm in the United States and I'm coming home soon.

Mrs. Creighton was overjoyed, with tears running down her cheeks she sobbed, "Oh that's wonderful! there was silence for a moment, and then Frank said, "Mother I want to ask you something that is important to me. While I've been here, I've met a lot of wonderful people and I've really become close friends to some. There is one fellow I would like to bring home to meet you if he could stay and live with us because he has no place to go." His Mother assured him it would be alright. Then Frank said, "You see, he wasn't as lucky as lucky as some; he was injured in battle. He was hit by a blast and his face is all disfigured. He lost his leg, and his right hand is missing. So you see, he feels uneasy about how others will accept him." Frank's Mother stopped to think a minute. She began to wonder how things would work out, and that people in town would think of someone like that. She said, "Sure Frank, you bring him home for a visit that is, we would love to meet him and have him stay with us for awhile; but him staying with us permanently, well, we'll have think about that one." There was silence for a minute, and then Frank said, "Okay Mother," and hung up.

A week went by without any word from Frank, and then a telegram arrived~we regret to inform you that your son has taken his life. We would like for you to come and identify the body."

There wonderful son was gone. The horror stricken parents could only ask themselves, "What had made him do this?"

When they walked into the room to identify the body of their son, they found a young man with a disfigured face, one leg missing and his right arm missing.

Author Unknown.