While I was admitted some months back at the hospital, something happened and it thought me a valuable lesson I was going to hold onto for a long time.
This woman who nursed her sick husband whose bed was just opposite mine, walked up to me.
She told me she had brought no cups along with her and she needed a cup she could use to bath her husband when he finally wakes up from sleep. She asked if I had any cup available to give her.
I told her I had brought none. The one I brought had been taken home. I do not use cups to pour water on my body. I used my hands. But she could make use of the cup on my water flask if she chose to.
She asked if I was okay with it, and I told her it was fine.
"Just use it. The flask has another cover on it. Use it." I smiled so she doesn't feel somehow about it.
She thanked me and left with the cup. Soon when her husband was awake, she walked him to the bathroom to have his bath, using the flask cup as a fetcher.
Moment later, when her husband was fast asleep again, she returned to me and asked if I had hot water in my flask. She told me they had no flask and her doctors said her husband will have to be drinking warm water always since he had just undergone a surgery.
I told her there was hot water in the flask and I stretched my hands, picked it, and handed it over to her.
I watched as she made tea for herself using the water from my flask, and drank the tea from the flask cup. When her husband was awake, she made him tea in the same cup and handed over to him to drink.
During that period, the flask was always with her and I didn't even bother to ask for it. I noticed her sick husband needed the hot water more than I did. As for me, I was already recovering fast and was just waiting to be discharged.
The day I was to be discharged, I went to the bathroom to take my bath. But then I thought of using the flask cover for the first time. I returned and asked the woman if I could use the flask cover to have my bath. This time, the husband was now awake and staring at me with his eyes wide open.
She told me to pick the cover.
While I turned to leave, her husband called me back.
"What do you want to use the cover for?"
I told him I wanted to use it to have my bath.
"Drop it please." He pointed angrily to the table.
He turned to his wife and scolded her.
"Why will you give him our flask cover to go and bath with? Why? I don't like this attitude of yours please. How will you share my cover with someone I do not know? Do you know the sickness he came with to the hospital?"
I dropped the flask cover on the table without saying a word, and walked to the bathroom. When I was done having my bath, I returned back to my bed and the wife brought the flask back to me. She thanked me for borrowing her the flask.
"At a point I forgot I had even borrowed the flask from you. Thank you so much. Please don't be angry."
I smiled and collected the flask from her. Before she left, she apologised again for her husbands rude behaviour towards me. I told her it was okay and I wasn't feeling bad about it.
When I asked if she had a flask for her husband's tea and hot water, she told me she didn't. But she planned buying one when money comes in.
I handed the flask back to her and told her to keep it.
"Use it for his water. I will buy a new one when I get home."
She was so excited. She thanked me severally, before turning to leave. The husband who laid on the bed, waved and smiled at me.
"Thank you. God bless you. Thank you very much." He smiled excitedly.

I left that hospital with a lesson:
Sometimes we offer help to people who wouldn't do same for us in return if we were in their shoes. We make sacrifices for people who wouldn't think of making such sacrifices for us too.

I have found myself doing things for people who denied me same favour when I needed it most. But that didn't stop me from being good and rendering help when they need it. It shouldn't stop you either.
Don't stop doing the right thing just because they don't do same for you. A good act will always speak for you. It may not come through them, but it will definitely come through someone else.

COPIED