The woman was distraught. Her son had set out to that place called America, where the streets were “paved with gold.” She had seen him off at the nearby train station but had not heard from him for six months. Now her head was besieged with questions: Had he made it to the ship? Had he crossed the Atlantic safely? Did he find a job? Was he okay? Finally, she heard something. A local businessman came back from America and told her that he had seen her son and that he looked well. He even provided her with her son’s address.

The woman promptly headed to the town scribe to dictate a letter to her son. She began, “Son, it is truly not right that you have ignored your aging mother and you have not sent a letter or even a regards to let me know that you are okay. Do you not realize that I worry about you day and night and that the worry you cause me is aging me prematurely? Is this the kind of upbringing we provided, to just go off on your own and forget those you left behind?”