It often happens that the older a person gets, the more they forget the details of their youth. Young people may not understand how this is possible, but elderly people can confirm this fact that over time, memories and even dear faces start to fade. When this happens, elderly people can start to lose connection with the world and may even get depressed because they feel all alone. This is how the man in our story today felt until one event occurred that caused him to look at the world around him with a fresh perspective. This story happened on the outskirts of a city.
There, in an old apartment, an elderly man lived alone. A year ago his beloved wife passed away. She had lived with him for so many years, gave birth to the children they raised together and was always with him through thick and thin. But now she was gone and he was left alone. Of course, his adult children supported him, regularly visiting him in his small apartment, but over time he became so grief-struck that he stopped communicating with them.
The only exception was his youngest daughter, who, despite all her father’s protestations, came to visit him and spoke to him. It was with her that the man shared his innermost thoughts and increasingly talked about how lonely and sad he was and how much he missed his beloved wife, who was no longer with him. No matter how much his daughter tried to cheer him up, she could not bring her father out of his depression. The man stayed at home more and more. He went outside less and less, and he spent all his time on the balcony from where he watched others live their lives, finding at least some form of entertainment for himself.
In addition, he loved to watch birds. They often sat on the railing of his balcony and chirped, dispelling his anguish. The man watched them and their behavior for a very long time, and then he started to feed them with pieces of bread. At first, mainly pigeons gladly accepted the feast. Then sparrows began to fly in.
They quickly picked up all the breadcrumbs that the elderly man treated them to, and then they flew away just as quickly as they came. But one day, among all these birds, a man noticed one large blackbird who always sat at a distance and only watched how other birds ate from the man’s hands. It was a Raven. The man tried to treat him several times, but the Raven would always fly to a safe distance when the man held out his hand with the bread. Once the elderly man was sitting at home in the kitchen and heard a knock on the glass.
He pushed aside the curtain and was surprised to see the familiar Raven on the other side of the window. He carefully opened the window and placed some bread on the cell. The Raven gratefully took it and flew away. The next day the same thing happened, but this time the Raven did not fly away immediately. Instead, he sat for a while looking at the elderly man.
Before long, the Raven was no longer afraid of the man but flew in. Every time he came out to the balcony, the Raven would sit next to him for a long time as if he wanted to alleviate the man’s loneliness. Over time, they got used to each other and spent all day together on the balcony. The elderly man told him the story of his life, and the birds seemed to listen to him with great interest. Once the man caught a very bad cold and fell ill with fever and cough.
He was so weak that he could no longer go out onto the balcony to see his Raven. The bird often flew to the window but eventually stopped. Later, his youngest daughter came to take care of her sick father. She gave him medicine and cooked food for him, and under her careful supervision, he quickly recovered. The first thing he did when he was able to get out of bed was to put on his jacket and walk out onto the balcony.
He took a treat for the Raven, put it on the edge of the railing, and waited for his friend, but the Raven never came. The elderly man was still very weak, so his daughter persuaded him to move into her house for a while so that she could fully care for him. After much resistance, he finally agreed. He lived with his daughter for a week, but he was very bored and lonely. He missed his feathered friend very much, and he worried that he would never see him again.
It was at this moment that he heard a familiar knock on the glass. The man rushed to the window as fast as he could. How surprised he was when he saw his Raven outside the window. How. How could he find him a hundred miles from home?
Something glittered in the Ravens beat the man, put on his jacket, and went out to see what the bird had brought. When he came closer, he was simply stunned. It was an earring, but not just any earring. It was his deceased wife’s earring. There was no doubt who it was because the man gave her those earrings many years ago, but she lost one soon after.
They searched for it for a long time but never found it. The Raven found the earring many years ago and took it to his nest, where it was all those years. And now, when he felt that this man needed support, he brought him the most precious thing he had and returned it to his friend. The man took the earring with shaking hands and realized that he had more to live for. He firmly decided to no longer lock himself in his apartment but to start spending more time with his children and grandchildren.
This is how the act of a bird was able to bring a person out of depression and return to him the joy of life. Share in the Comments If you liked this story.