There is an elderly man in a Nursing Home in New York suffering from dementia. He no longer knows who is family is even though they come daily to see him and hope that there will be a glimmer of recognition but there has not been any for a long time. They bring food, his army uniform, pictures, anything, anything that will jog his memory but nothing. Down the hall is another gentleman and his family is going through the same thing. A funny thing started to happen. Every day the first gentlman would walk down the hall and into the second gentleman’s room and rub his back, stroke his head and hold his hand. He would visit for a short period of time and then leave. It started happening on a regular basis and both families enjoyed seeing him do this everyday, although baffled by it as normally the second gentleman tended to get agitated when others touched him. They never acknowledged each other but both seemed content with the procedure. One day the second  gentleman’s family had brought in pictures and were showing them to their father. Their father did not recognize them, but the son of the first gentleman thought there was a familiarity to them, that somehow he had seen them before. When he got home that evening he poured through his father’s albums, and there was the same picture. Through research it turns out that both gentlemen had been in the Korean War, both in the same unit.  The first gentlman was a medic and the second gentleman was a cook. The first was on the front lines and the second, although not on the front lines, would sneak food to those up front, knowing they needed all the energy they could get. The second gentleman was wounded quite seriously and the first gentleman was the medic that took care of him during his worse times. They have since been moved into the same room where they take care of each other, the only form of recognition there is is the tender touch of the medic on the cooks back and hands, and a loving look only a good cook can give, after he has offered up a good meal.