Our house was across the street from the entrance of a famous hospital in the city. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to 1 at the clinic. As I was fixing supper one summer evening, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly 2 man.
He's 3 taller than my eight-year-old. But the shocking thing was his face-uneven from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was 4 . He told me he'd been 5 for a room since noon. For a moment, I 6 , but it didn't take long to see that this older man had a big heart 7 into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children, and her husband, who was 8 disabled from a back injury. He didn't complain; 9 , he was grateful that no pain 10 his disease.
We 11 him up in the children's room. The next morning, he asked if he could come back and stay the next time he had a 12 . I told him of course. On his next trip, he brought a big fish and the largest oysters I had ever seen as a gift.
In the years he came to stay 13 with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden. Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special 14 . I know our family will always be grateful to have known him; from him, we learned to accept the bad without complaint and the good with 15 .
