A Touch of Heaven　天堂的触摸

A Touch of Heaven　天堂的触摸

◎ Tim Reynolds

It had been a very disheartening day. The doctors had given us the worst of news. Our daughter, who had just completed her first brain surgery to remove a tumor and was going through radiation treatments, was now officially given a two percent chance of survival as this type of cancer had no cure.

这是一个相当令人沮丧的一天。医生刚刚带给我们一个最坏的消息。我们的女儿，她刚刚结束她的首次大脑肿瘤切除手术，目前正处于放疗期，而现在正式宣布只有百分之二十的存活率，因为这种类型的癌症已经没法治愈了。

My wife and I decided to take our daughter to lunch before continuing our afternoon conversations. We went to a local restaurant where we sat in silence waiting for the waitress. Our daughter Molly wouldn’t hear of such sadness or silence so she played happily with crayons and paper while we sat and stared at the floor.

在继续我们下午的会谈之前，我和妻子决定先带女儿去吃午饭。我们去了当地一家餐馆，安静地坐在那儿等着服务员。我们的女儿莫莉不愿意气氛这么悲伤或沉默，于是当我们坐在那儿盯着地板时，她很开心地用蜡笔在纸上涂鸦。

I noticed a very elderly couple sitting a few booths away, they too in silence never speaking a word. I couldn’t help but wonder what challenges they had faced in their life and if they ever faced such terrible news about a child of theirs.

我注意到有一对老夫妇坐在不远处，他们也处于沉默之中，从头到尾没说一句话。我不禁想知道他们的生活面临着怎样的挑战，是否也曾在他们孩子身上发生过这种可怕的事情。

We eventually ordered our lunch and still sitting in silence we ate what we could. At some point I became intrigued by the old couple and I watched them more intently with each passing minute. I thought to myself that they hadn’t yet spoken to each other and I wondered if it was the peace they were enjoying or the food or maybe both. However, at some point I lost interest and put my focus back on my lunch.

最后，我们点的午饭送来了，然后依旧默默无语地坐着，把能吃的通通都吃了。在某些方面，我开始变得感兴趣——每过一分钟，我就更专心地看着那对老夫妇。我暗自想，他们还没有开口说话，这到底是他们喜欢的一种和平宁静，还是在享受食物，或者是两者兼而有之。然而，在另一方面，我却失去了兴趣，然后把我的注意力重新转回到午餐上。

Molly was still talking away and enjoying her meal and her mom and I both listened and tried to be happy in her presence but it wasn’t going very well. All of a sudden I saw this hand come out of nowhere. It was huge and I could tell that it had been afflicted with arthritis. The knuckles were swollen and the fingers were crooked and off center. I couldn’t take my eyes of that hand. The hand drifted down and landed on my daughter’s tiny six year old hand and as it did I looked up; it was the old woman who had been sitting with the old man in silence eating their lunch.

莫莉仍旧在不停地说话，享受着她的午餐，而我和她妈妈在一旁听着，想要在她面前表现出快乐，但我们做得不太好。突然，我看到一只手不断地在我面前显现。这只手极大，我可以看得出来，它已经患了关节炎。手指关节肿胀，指头从中间部分已经开始扭曲变形。我不能将我的目光从那只手上移开。手从我眼前落下来，落在我6岁的小小女儿的手上，我抬头一看，它正是刚刚一直在寂静中吃饭的那个老女人的手。

I looked into her eyes and she spoke, but not to me. She looked at my daughter and simply whispered, “If I could do more for you I would.” And then she smiled and moved away to join her husband who had moved towards the door.

我望着她的眼睛，然后她开口说话了，不过并不是对我说的。她看着我的女儿，低声说了一句：“如果我能为你做得更多，我会的。”然后她笑了笑，同她正朝门口走去的丈夫一起离开了。

I heard a “Hey look, a whole dollar.” Molly spoke with excitement as she discovered that the old lady had placed a crumpled one dollar bill on the back of her hand. I looked down and saw the dollar bill and quickly realized that it had been left behind by the old lady. I looked up to thank her, but she was gone. I sat stunned, not sure what had just happened and then I looked over at my wife. In almost unison, we broke out into a smile. The sadness of the day had been wiped out by the crippled hand and generous touch of an old lady.

我听见了一声“嘿，看哪，一张美元”。莫莉兴奋地说，她发现老妇人在她的手背上留下了一张皱巴巴的美元钞票。我低头一看，看见这张钞票，马上就意识到是那位老妇人留下的。我抬起头来想要感谢她，但她已经走远了。我呆坐下来，不知道发生了什么，然后与妻子互相看了看。几乎是同时，我们俩扑哧一声笑了出来。这一天的悲伤，被那位慷慨的老妇人那枯皱的手通通消灭了。

The dollar, although exciting to Molly, was not what made us smile or begin to feel differently, it was the offer from an old lady who felt our hurt and our suffering. The crippled hand symbolized a healing touch and made us realize that we did not have to fight this battle alone; that others cared and wanted to help. We felt up-lifted and soon our day filled with more happy thoughts as we spent the rest of our lunch planning the next day at home with fun filled activities for everyone.

这美元，尽管让莫莉兴奋无比，但我们之所以会有了不一样的感觉并且会笑起来，并不是它的原因。而是因为有一位老妇人感觉到了我们的悲伤和痛苦。这只残废的手象征着一个疗伤之触，让我们意识到，我们并不是孤独地对抗这场战斗，也有其他人在关心我们，想要帮助我们。我们感到重新有了信心，于是在午餐的剩余时间里，我们规划好了第二天的家庭计划，为每个人都准备了有趣的活动，而这一天充满了更多快乐的念头。

I will never forget that crippled arthritic hand that taught us such an important lesson. One does not have to go through life facing hardships all alone; the world is full of compassionate and understanding people. Even those that are suffering from their own afflictions have much to give to each other.

我永远都不会忘记那只残废的手，为我们上了如此重要的一堂课。人们并非只能独自面对生活中的困难，这个世界上满是富有同情心和善解人意的人。即便是那些自己遭受很多苦难的人，也有很多东西要给对方。

The hand that covered Molly’s on that day still covers it. And although Molly is no longer with me, I can see her holding hands with that old lady now, both hands perfect and both faces filled with smiles and laughter. And though Heaven has these two perfect angels now, the lessons that they both taught me will remain forever in my heart.

覆盖在莫莉手上的那只手，那一整天都一直在那儿。尽管莫莉现在已经不和我在一起了，我仍能看到她和那位老妇人手牵着手，两只手都很完美，两张脸都充满了笑容。虽然这两个完美的天使现在待在天堂里，但她们俩教会我的东西永远都在我心中。

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