By C.J. Martine

My brother Harry and myself, when we were young, always played Harry’s favorite game ‘Doctor and Patient’. My brother always played the role of doctor and me the patient. My brother performed a surgery on me everyday and used to tell my mother melodramatically that I was dead. Every time he said that my mother used to tell him gently that a doctor’s priority should be to save the patient’s life no matter what, and, leave the rest to God.

Two decades later my brother working as a surgeon in a multi-specialty hospital, after a surgery had to declare to the family that the patient was dead. He did so with a very heavy heart and all the feelings, that he could not save the patient. The patients mother patted my brother’s hand and said, “you did all that you could do. But the rest was God’s will”.

On hearing this mother’s words Harry remembered my mother’s words. The lesson he had learned from my mother was reminded by this mother. <<