Is life unfair?

I don't know where to begin this story.You know there are days in your lives or moments or sights or events in life which move you very deeply,you feel a deep heaviness and wonder can life be so unfair.Today was such a day of mixed emotions.

I think I talked in one of my previous mails about Mark ,my mentor at work,the person who introduced me to and taught me skiing,a perfect gentleman and one of the most patient man ever.You start believing there is goodness in mankind after all after seeing this man.A guy who perfectly fits the bill of 'high thinking and simple living'.All the above descriptions are to indicate of my opinion of him and just to make the point that i admire and adore him a lot.

Well coming back, we had trouble at work,with something i did,so it boiled down to me to fix it -'You break it,you fix it'.I was not able to figure out the problem so i went to Mark,this was on Thursday,we sat till 11 PM at office on Thursday and again till 11 PM at office on Friday and again came to office today on Saturday and we finally solved it at 1 PM.He didn't have to do it but he did it,he cancelled his weekend plans,Thursday and Friday dinner plans with his wife and sat with me to solve this.He missed his dinner on both days of Thursday and Friday.On top of this he gave the whole credit to me for solving this for which i received appreciation mails from my directors.Now what can i say about him after doing all this?I don't have enough to thank him.

Anyways after solving the problem today afternoon ,he offered to drive me home(he stays at the opposite end of town of where i stay),i firmly refused but he persisted so i gave in.We got in his car which was clearly evident because of the ski rack on the top.
I was in general chatting with him.Then i asked ..

Me; Mark,I guess you have three children ,right?
Mark:Yeah,two sons and a daughter.
Me: Do they live in Minnesota?
Mark: One of sons live at ..(some place) .. near minneapolis
and my daughter lives at ...(some place) in minneapolis.

then he stopped talking ...

Me:What about your second son?Where is he?
Mark: He pauses for a while and then says ..He stays with us..he is retarded ..he will probably stay with us as long as we are alive...

Then he goes silent .. I go silent.. i don't know what to speak..I know he felt the pain when he spoke it out ...We dont speak much after that (probably i was caught in my own thoughts so much i couldn't think of anything else to talk,probably the same thing happened to him too)..I show him directions to my house and i thank him and get off the car.

I don't know what! when i heard that,i felt a twang in my heart and felt a remorse as to why did i ask him those questions,to think such a gem of a person,you sincerely hope everything is happy for him.When i heard that,i just couldn't help get the feeling that life is so unfair sometimes.

I guess his son must be around 30 years considering Mark is around 60's.I know how hard it is to raise a retarded person,as one of my relatives have a retarded son who is also in his 30's.You have to take care of everything and have to constantly keep them in sights and take care of them like a small child.

I suddenly realised the source or secret(whatever you want to call it) behind his great patience.I dont know whether all his great qualities are inherent or were they derived?Did life teach him patience the hard way?the will to help?or rather would I put it as he developed these qualities to a very great degree for the love of his son?I don't know whether I am coming to the right conclusions here,probably not,and i dont want to ,but whatever it is, it doesn't change the kind of person Mark is and my respect for him has just multiplied by bounds!

Its so funny someone else's pain can affect you so much.

I sincerely hope there is a God out there!!