The love embodied in the gift outlives the giver, affirms his life drive, and adds a sense of beauty to the endurance of life.1

It was Christmas Eve and the elderly man had walked in his pyjamas through the sleet and snow, until he reached the accident and emergency department. He already knew that he had cancer, but now he was in acute urinary retention. As luck would have it, the house surgeon who came to see him was the one he knew from the ward; they exchanged banter as the younger man sited a catheter. A few nights later, when the house surgeon was back on the ward, the elderly man called him over. He had a gift for him. It was a bottle of champagne. In his working life he had been the head waiter at a famous restaurant; this champagne was the favourite drink of a celebrity who had dined there. The houseman was speechless with emotion; he liked the man and knew he was about to die. It was the first gift he had received from a patient.