David McElroy

I know a woman who married a man who turned out to be a monster. In public, he was responsible and loving. He had a respected position in their community. He said and did all the right things around others.

But in private, he was an abusive monster to his family. Their children were terrified of him. They learned early in life never to talk about what went on at home, because he was very concerned about his public image. His wife never knew what he was going to do. She couldn’t count on him when she was sick. Nothing she did was good enough. He screamed at her and belittled her at every chance.

The man cheated on his wife with someone at work. He was quietly fired, but he wouldn’t admit what happened. After he took another job and started cheating again, his wife finally divorced him. The guy never did admit to any error. He never confessed to anything. He just claimed to be misunderstood by everyone.

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There was nothing extraordinary about the story, but something about the image touched me.

The 54-year-old man in the hospital bed is in an intensive care unit. Just a few weeks ago, he had a liver transplant. The man giving him a shave is his son-in-law. The man’s daughter posted the photo along with her brief explanation.

“Tenderness between men,” she wrote on Reddit. “My husband with my dad in the ICU, giving him his first shave in weeks after a liver transplant. I was so grateful for this moment.”

We put up statues and monuments to the wrong people. We name buildings and roads after politicians. We love winners and those who have achieved some sort of big success. But we humans are at our best when we’re doing “little” things — every time one individual takes the time and makes the effort to do something kind and loving for another.

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