September 14, 2017
In
Character, Youth Frontiers
Making Grandpa Proud
By Samantha HoangLong, Youth Frontiers’ 2016 Character Award Winner
I was only 16 years old. Yet I was down on my knees, changing the diaper of an 89-year-old Vietnamese man.
Every day when I approached him, holding a clean diaper in my hand, I hoped that the dirty one was “light.” Sometimes he’d pee too much and soak the diaper, making everything around him wet. I would have to wipe him down and change his clothes.
At 16, I should have been hanging out with friends and staying up late watching Netflix. But I realized how this old man must feel — incapable of doing a simple task. A young woman had to change his diaper for him.