When my son was in first grade in Fort Wayne, Indiana in 1995, his teacher created a reward system, in which the child was rewarded one ticket for good behavior on a day.  After they had accumulated enough tickets, they could use them to “buy” toys or other stuffs from their class basket.

By the end of the semester, he came home giving each of us, mom, dad and his baby sister, a gift that he bought using the tickets that he had earned and saved during the semester.  He even gave his baby sister some girlish thing for her hairless head.  I was not able to appreciate it until today when I saw a 10-year-old child saved his play dollars for a toy that he wanted to purchase from his class basket.  This reminded me of the gift that my son brought back home when he was 6 years old.

I recalled this incident to my daughter yesterday.  I said there must be some toys in the basket, since it was created for children.  “It was amazing that your brother, so young at that time, could have thought of bringing something for each of us instead of buying a toy for himself.  I don’t know what he was thinking at that time when he denied himself the fun of a toy.”

After pouring some nice words on her brother, my daughter told me, “Now you make me miss my brother more than ever.”  I am speechless, either my heart is too full for words now or I am running out of words.