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  • 2012-09-16 (xsd:date)
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  • Just Stay (en)
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  • An inspirational tale about a young Marine who spends the night in a hospital comforting a dying stranger (who in turn mistakenly believes the young Marine to be his son) has been circulated on the internet as a true story since the 1990s under a variety of titles such as He Needed a Son and Just Stay: This particular account is not a true story, however, but rather a work of short fiction authored by Roy Popkin in 1964. It was published under the title Night Watch in the September 1965 edition of Reader's Digest and has subsequently been reprinted in a number of Chicken Soup for the Soul collections of inspirational pieces. The mention of a Mr. William Grey and the plot point about the young Marine's having come to the hospital to inform Mr. Grey that his son had been killed in Iraq are more recent additions to this piece, tacked on by someone other than the original author to make the tale seem more topical and poignant. The original version concluded with the sentence When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, I knew how much he needed me. (en)
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