Appreciate... No Delays

An old gentleman used to stop by an antique shop in New Hampshire to sell furniture.  One day after he left, the antique dealer's wife said she wished she had told him how much she enjoyed his visits.  The husband said, "Next time let's tell him so."

The following summer a young woman came in and introduced herself as the daughter of the old gentleman.  Her father, she said, had died.  Then the wife told her about the conversation she and her husband had after the father's last visit.  The young woman's eyes filled with tears.  "Oh, how much good that would have done for my father," she cried.  "He was a man who needed to be reassured that he was liked."

"Since that day," the shopkeeper said later, "whenever I think something particularly nice about a person, I tell him.  I might never get another chance."

- Sounds, quoted in The Speaker's Quote Book (Christian Literature Crusade, 1997)