[英文を聴く](1.5MB)（朗読 Barbara Knode)
When
Ben's father died, Ben was helpless; he didn't know what to do.
The house was full of relatives, but nobody was paying any attention
to him. He tried to think what he could do that would have made
his father happy. He remembered that he and his father had been
working on a bookshelf in their basement shop and he thought to
himself, "Wouldn't he be proud of me if I could finish it
all by myself!" He ran downstairs and began to hammer.
All of a sudden he heard his mother shouting at him from the top
of the basement stairs. She was saying, "Haven't you any
feeling? Your father isn't even buried yet --- and you're playing!"
Ben is a grown man now, but he never forgot how terrible he felt.
He had thought he was doing something to show how much he loved
his father --- and it had been completely misunderstood.
People have their own individual ways of expressing grief. Sometimes,
if someone else doesn't understand this, you may have to explain
it. Or, you may have to try to understand someone else. Karen
was shocked when she heard her mother playing records of musicals
just a few days after her father died. How could anyone listen
to gay, light-hearted songs at such a time? Well, those were musicals
her mother and father had gone to, long before Karen was born.
Her mother was remembering those happy times.
During the early weeks and months of grief we need to respect
our own needs and the feelings of others in our family. There
is no "right" or "wrong" way to feel. The
important thing is for each person to find what is best for himself
or herself.