Dr. Updike, upstairs

"There was a young doctor in the southern part of the United States who took care of poor Mexican mothers and children. One day he became engaged.  The young woman prepared a pre-engagement party, but the night of the party the doctor was called to care for a Mexican woman who was dying in childbirth.  He did not go to the party; he saved the mother, and he also saved the child.  The girl broke off the engagement.  The doctor had his office above a grocery store, with a sign down below telling that his office was on the second floor.  When he died after living in poverty, people wondered how he could ever be repaid for what he had done. Finally, they took the sign from the grocery store at the foot of the stairs, and they put it on his coffin.  Everyone who saw his nameplate understood what his life of pain had brought him to: 'Doctor Updike, upstairs.'"