Every Night, When I Went to Work, I Left My 5-Year-Old Son With My 73-Year-Old Father. A Few Weeks Later, My Boy Started Complaining of Severe Lower Back Pain. When I Asked What Had Happened, He Answered Fearfully, “Mommy, Grandpa Told Me Not to Tell You What We Do at Night.”
But I still didn’t understand the most important part.
“You two were making this little house at night?”
“Yes. Ben wanted to give it to you for your birthday. He kept saying that you always come home exhausted, and he wanted to make you happy.”
My eyes filled with tears.
But I was still angry.
“What about his back pain? Why didn’t you tell me?”
My father lowered his head.
“That was my
biggest mistake.”
He was silent for a few seconds.
“Two weeks ago, Ben started complaining about back pain. I thought it was because he’d been sitting on the floor for too long. He liked kneeling in front of the little table to paint the walls of the miniature house. When the pain got worse, I told him he couldn’t sit like that anymore.”
