Wishes do come true

“‘I love you, Dad, I’ll see you this weekend,’ I said as I left his room at the nursing home. He blinked slowly, his only way of acknowledging my words since a stroke had left him unable to speak. I stopped in the hallway and broke down in tears.

“‘Are you okay?’ a nurse asked, handing me a tissue. ‘Dad seems so sad,’ I uttered. ‘I wish there was something that could make him smile again.’

“That Saturday, I walked into my father’s room and gasped in shock. There he was, holding a dog with a wagging tail. Before I could ask where the pup came from, my dad smiled radiantly at me. Just then, the nurse I’d seen in the hallway came into his room. ‘I bring my dog, Dolly, to visit every week,’ she said. ‘She and your dad are very close. I thought you might want to see them together.’ Laughing through tears and amazed at such kindness, all I could do was nod—and smile.” —Rhonda Harls, 59, Miami