Reading response to “The Scent of the Gods”

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Have you ever lied to protect something you hold dear? Yes, I did. Although I knew that telling lie is wrong, I still did it to protect the feeling of my grandfather.

My grandfather took care of me when I was in kindergarten. He always picked me up after school and taught me to do homework. When he was free, he played with me. He also bought me a lot of sweets. He treated me so well when I was small. But then, when I was in primary school, I went back home by school bus and my grandfather seldom picked me up. I could only visit him during holiday.

Unfortunately, my grandfather had dementia. He couldn’t take care of himself and couldn’t recognize his family members, not even his wife. Whenever my family went to visit him, he always asked the same question: where’s my elder brother? In fact, his elder brother passed away a few years before, but he just couldn’t remember and kept asking why his elder brother didn’t come to visit him. He always thought that his brother was still alive. Whenever he asked me where his brother was, I answered that he was at home and he didn’t come to visit you because he was not free. ‘You would see him next time.’

If the incident happened again, I would still do it in the same way. I knew that I shouldn’t tell lie but if I told him the truth, he would absolutely be sad about this. He has already grown old and couldn’t remember things, I didn’t want him to suffer from sadness anymore.  I told a lie to him because he is the one who I hold the dearest.