Our house was across the street from a big hospital, so we rented (出租) our empty rooms to outpatients. One evening, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a sick-looking man.
His face looked terrible - it was swollen(肿胀的) and red. Yet his voice was pleasant. He told me that he came for treatment and that he'd been finding a spare room since noon, but no one would give him one because of his face.
For a moment I didn't know if I should let him in, but he said he would be happy to just sleep on our passage. I agreed.
The old man had a huge heart inside his small body. He told me that he fished for a living to support his daughter, who has five children and a disabled husband.
He didn't complain while telling me his story. He was thankful that he did not feel any pain from his disease, which was seemingly a form of skin cancer(皮肤癌).
The next morning, he said, "Can I come back and stay the next time I need treatment?" I told him he was welcome to come again.
On his next trip, he brought a big fish and some other seafood. In the years that he stayed with us, there was never a time that he did not bring us gifts like these.
My neighbor warned me that I could lose possible renters by putting up the old man after he left the first morning.
Maybe we did lose renters once or twice. But if onlytheycould have known him, perhaps their illnesses would have been easier to stand. I know our family will be thankful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with thanks.
