Fatal disappointment

One Sunday, after the church service was over, I met an old acquaintance, whom I had not seen for a long time, even though we are parishioners of the same church. Needless to say, we were happy to see one another. When the usual courtesies had been exchanged he suddenly blurted out: "Do you know that my brother has died?" Although I could vaguely remember that his brother had died about a year before, I assumed a blank expression, so as to encourage him to tell me his seemingly exciting story.

"He died a tragic death because of a rash deed of his one and only beloved daughter. Although my brother was suffering from high blood pressure, he worked hard to provide his son and daughter with the best education available. His son attended one of Jakarta's most prestigious private universities and his daughter, papa's darling, went to an Australian college.

A couple of years elapsed, and one day the parents decided to pay their daughter a surprise visit in Australia. But imagine the father's feelings, when he met his daughter who was already the mother of a one-year-old baby and was expecting another one. To her shocked parents the daughter related calmly and without remorse that she was married to an Australian who was more than twice her age. As a matter fact, he was 59. Although the husband was very fond of his young wife, the girl's father was troubled by the nagging question: would the husband be still around when the kids reached school age? If the husband died, could the young wife take care of the children in a strange land with different customs?

The father came home, a deeply disappointed and brokenhearted man. Not long thereafter, he died a tragic death from a stroke. Apparently, the disappointment and grief were too much for him to bear.

A. DJUANA

Jakarta