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Realization

By Gordon Francis Corbett

          Our country is built of immigrants and their descendants.  Very 

often these people long for their families' respective homelands.  They sing the old songs, tell the old legends, and, in their minds, they paint beautiful landscapes.

          Some years ago, PBS broadcast a special on Irish immigration to our 

country.  Toward its end, it told the story of an old gentleman who 

had come to America when he was a young man.  His mother had feared 

for his future, and she believed that he would do much better over here.

          At that time, when someone planned to leave Ireland for America, his 

family and friends would hold a wake, just as if the individual had 

died.  So, upon learning that this young man was about to depart for 

America, they held their wake.  The young man decided that he should 

return to Ireland after making his way in America, if only to visit 

his mother, and perhaps even to bring her here.

          After he came to America, he got enmeshed in daily routines.  He 

worked hard, studied hard, and built a fine life.  He married an 

American woman who gave him several children.  Nevertheless, the 

Emerald Isle haunted his thoughts.  He remembered his childhood, 

Ireland's gorgeous scenery, and its fine Gaelic speech.  He 

remembered his mother, too, but she died before he could return for her.

          When at last he returned to Ireland as an old man, he found his 

family's home in ruins, and the ruins' floorplan was much smaller 

than he remembered.  He searched for other familiar landmarks, but 

found only the ivy-covered arch where he first kissed a girl.  He 

went to the nearby town, but could find no one who had known his family.

          Nostalgia vanished.  He realized how lucky he had been.  His mother 

had been completely right.  If he had stayed in Ireland, as he had 

longed to do, his life would have been much poorer and vastly more 

painful.  His trip to America had given him a life he could scarcely 

have imagined.

          Perhaps we can profit by his example.

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