The 1989 Armenian earthquake killed thirty thousand people. Moments after the tremor stopped, a father raced to an elementary school. As he arrived to nothing but a mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he’d made to his child: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.” Other parents arrived as he began pulling at the rocks. “It’s too late,” they told the man. But the father refused. For thirty six hours he dug—his hands raw, but he refused to quit.

After thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder. “Arman!  Arman!” and a voice answered him, “Dad, it’s me.” Then the boy added these priceless words, “I told the others not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised, “No matter what, I’ll always be there for you!”

From Dad Time