The Story of Mr. Lee

I’d like to tell you the story of Mr. Lee, of Taiwan.  I met Mr. Lee in a hospital in Kaohsiung, in the south of Taiwan.  I was doing volunteer work there, bringing books around to the patients in the various wards, hoping to brighten their day up with a smile, a kind word, and an offer of a magazine or book to read.

As I went through the wards most of the people I met seemed to be suffering more emotionally than they were physically.  The hospital was not all bright and new looking, rather a bit drab and older in fashion, particularly in the older wing, which really did seem a bit depressing.  The patients seemed to reflect this, and the majority seemed caught up in the suffering, fear, loneliness and worry that is common in hospitals.

As I entered one ward, I went around the room to the various beds offering reading material, and when I got to one bed I was quite surprised to find a man who was smiling and outgoing.  He seemed to stand out in the hospital because he was not under the cloud of suffering.  I thought he must be in for something very minor, and would be leaving soon.  I asked him if he were only there for a short time and I was surprised at his answer.  He told me he had been in hospital for nine months, he had broken his back, and the doctors had told him he could never walk again!

This with such a positive outlook surprised me greatly, and made me decide I needed to visit him after my rounds were finished and find out more of his story.  After my duties I found my way back to his room and asked him, among other things, how he could be so happy with such a difficult prognosis.

Mr. Lee was a computer programmer.  He was working on installing a TV antenna on his apartment balcony when he slipped and fell from the seven story apartment to the street below.  He was brought to the hospital, and of course his family was frightened and worried as they waited to hear if he would live or not.  When Mr. Lee woke up, he found that he was indeed alive, and his family was overjoyed to find him not only awake, but coherent, with no apparent brain damage.  They were overjoyed, but when Mr. Lee found that his back was broken and that he could no longer move his legs, he fell into depression and anger.

He found himself more and more angry, worried, frightened and bitter by his injury, and by the report that he would never be able to walk again.  He became quite sullen and despondent, and when his family came to visit him, they couldn’t cheer him up.  However, after a while, he realized that his family was suffering as much as he was.  He thought about how they were living with the realization that their husband and father would never walk again, and yet, instead of feeling sorry for themselves, they were trying hard to cheer him up.  Mr. Lee realized that he was making their lives even more difficult by his attitude, and he decided that he would have to change his attitude for their sakes.

After that, whenever Mr. Lee’s family would come to visit him, he would pretend to be cheerful for their sakes.  He would put on a cheerful face and talk about pleasant things:  daily family news, how the kids were doing in school, what they would do when he could return home, etc.  He kept this up for some time until he realized that it was no longer an act.  His cheerfulness became real.  His physical situation hadn’t changed, but his heart and outlook had.  His life became very happy through his attitude.  The cheerfulness he had shown his family had become a part of his character.

My wife and I kept in touch with Mr. Lee for some time after that, and shortly before we left Taiwan his wife and he came to visit us.  We passed an enjoyable afternoon, and then he announced that he had something to show us.  Mrs. Lee ran out to the car and brought in a pair of crutches, and Mr. Lee proudly showed us how he had come to the point that he could walk with crutches; something the doctors had said he could never do.