Hello, friends!
Ancient wisdom says a man in his life must do three things plant a tree, build a house and raise a son. A man named Josh Marshall succeeded in doing all of the above by the age of 28, but then trouble knocked at his door. 28-year-old Josh Marshall and his eight-year-old son Gabriel lived in Kansas. It should be noted that with the birth of their first child, the Marshall family got another real man.
The boy was growing up healthy and strong and didn’t leave his father’s side even for a second. The parents loved their firstborn deeply, and Josh taught his son all the wisdom of life from early childhood. Many people said that the relationship between Josh and Gabriel was more than just perfect because the boy’s father didn’t just appear to him, but also his best friend and an older brother. They spent all their time together and together they made their life plans. But in 2015, everything changed.
It was then that the parents learned some shocking news. The thing was that after Gabriel had his annual checkup, the doctors invited Josh to their office and informed him that Gabriel was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. There was still a chance of survival, but the boy needed urgent surgery. The news came as a shock for the little boy and his parents, but they weren’t about to give up. Soon, Gabriel got his surgery and his tumor was removed.
However, the surgery left the boy with a rather big scar on the right side of his head. I don’t think I need to tell you how the terrifying diagnosis, as well as the fear of the surgery, had turned the previously cheerful Gabriel into a timid child. Looking at himself in the mirror, all he could now see was the huge scar over half of his head. The Mark always brought up unpleasant memories in the boy’s mind. He was even embarrassed to go outside and thus he became very closed off.
Let me remind you that the boy was only eight years old and every time he went out he attracted the curious looks of passersby. We would have probably never got to hear this story if it wasn’t for what Josh did to support his only son. It was the most ordinary day. But when Josh came home from work, Gabriel and his mother froze as soon as they saw him. The thing was that Josh now had a scar on his head identical to the one his son had.
As it turned out later, Josh couldn’t watch his son suffer, so he decided to shave his head as an act of support for his sick child to show him that he wasn’t alone. Then the man went to a tattoo parlor and got a tattoo of his son’s scar on his head. The pictures of the father’s act of solidarity with his son were soon published on Facebook.
However, no one could have ever imagined at the time how quickly the simple family photo would spread throughout the internet and that it would even become kind of a symbol of a true father’s love. Thousands of people around the world couldn’t hold back their tears when they saw the picture of Josh and his son.
They wrote words of support to the family and even said that Josh deserved to get the father of the year award. Local journalists even came to interview the family but Josh wasn’t looking for popularity. All he wanted to do was support his little boy. I never thought that this photo would cause such an incredible reaction in society, Josh wrote on his Facebook page and jumped ahead, let me just say that Josh achieved his goal. After all, Gabriel didn’t just stop feeling ashamed of his scar, but on the contrary, he learned to be proud of it.
And how could he not be when his father was standing next to him with the same scar and Gabriel always looked up to his father in everything. It’s been said that fathers are usually happy when their sons look like them, but they aren’t always happy when they behave like them as well. In this case, however, things are very different because Josh is always happier about Gabriel’s success than his friends. Do you think you’d be able to take this drastic step? How do you feel about Josh’s idea?
Be sure to write your opinion in the comments.