I decided to return the next night just to hear him sing again. Well, I told my friend I was really there to see him. But he would understand anyway. Once again like clockwork, just minutes before the announcement, the singing began. It was the oddest thing. You could sense that the old gentleman was about to sing because the place quieted down in anticipation. Pin-drop silence...

“I’ll be loving you always. With a love that’s true always. When the things you plan need a helping hand, I will understand always, oh always...” When he’d finished and the hustle and noise of the hospital picked up, I turned to my friend and said, “It’s wonderful that he comes every day to sing to his wife.”

“Bob, I thought I told you. He’s not visiting there. He’s a patient,” my friend said. “Oh, I’m sorry. I misunderstood. His wife is visiting him. Maybe if I hurry I catch her when she leaves. I would really love to speak with her.”

“Bob, that would be impossible. I did a little research today. You’ll love this one. He’s all alone down there. He sings that song for his wife who is in a nursing home. Their children live out west somewhere. She can’t come to visit him. She is in an acute-care section where she is monitored all the time.

She can’t even talk much, so the staff where she is arranges the phone call. They visit over the phone a few minutes each night and he always ends it the same way — singing to her,” he said. —Beliefnet.com