A bright, well-behaved little boy lived with his parents and grandparents in suburbia.

A bright, well-behaved little boy lived with his parents and
grandparents in suburbia.

One evening, the boy's father passed outside his bedroom and was pleased
to hear him kneeling beside his bed saying his prayers. He finished off
with:

God bless mummy
God bless daddy
God bless grandma
Ta ta grandpa

The father thought this form of prayer a little strange, but was so
pleased that his son was praying of his own accord, that he thought
nothing more of it. Until, that is, he woke up to find that grandpa had
passed away with a stroke during the night.

A few weeks later, he again overheard his son's prayers:

God bless mummy
God bless daddy
Ta ta grandma

Sure enough, the next morning we find that the little boy's grandmother
had had a heart attack in the middle of the night and passed away peacefully.

Our father was baffled by this turn of events. Was he the father of a
strangely talented and gifted son? What could this lead to - fame,
fortune ... who knows! Our principle eavesdropper decided to listen in
on all his sons prayers from that night on, to see what other mystical
secrets might be revealed.

But our hero was not to be so well rewarded. There was nothing in his
son's prayers in the least unusual for several weeks. Then one night, he
overheard him say:

God bless mummy
Ta ta daddy

Our hero was stricken with grief! What had he done to deserve such a
short life! His parents had been old and withered; but he was still in
the prime of life!

So great was his turmoil, that he didn't get a wink of sleep all night.
He got up in the morning expecting disaster to strike at any time. He
drove extra carefully to work that morning, and stayed in his office all
day.

On his return home, he poured out his worries to his wife. He'd had an
awful day, greifstricken, worried, and just wanted to get it over with.
But his wife had no time for him. "You think YOU'VE had a bad day. I've
been waiting for you to get back to help me out. I've had a terrible day
today. I got up this morning and opened the front door to find the
milkman lying dead on the porch...."