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City Pages - The Blotter

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Things That Make Men Cry

Filed under: Family

BBC News has polled male readers about the events that make them cry.

I won't lie to you, a lot of these are pretty standard, and hence lame. You have your weddings, your kid moments, blah blah blah. But then you stumble upon items like this ...


18. "Being told by the girl that you love that she wants you dead."

... and you're hooked.

Full disclosure: I'm a soft touch, so I can't even bear to make fun of the guy who cries at Cool Runnings. There are also men who cry at bagpipes (I do, too, just for very different reasons). A plurality of opinions are in play, so another highlight is: "Realising the entire universe is interconnected in mind-boggling ways." (My pal Danny is making a shirt with the words "Shut Up, Hippie" on it just for people like this.)

The one you'll really want to read is after the jump, though.

"After visiting my grandfather's grave in Hermanville-sur-Mer War Cemetery, France for the first time in August 2005 with my father, I noticed that his headstone didn't have any personal message engraved. I asked my father in all innocence why this was so. He promptly burst into tears, saying that the British government charged families in the 1940s for this service, and his newly widowed mother with two young children couldn't afford it. I promised him there and then that I would arrange it for him.

Finally in December 2007, I received pictures from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission showing that it had at last been done. I got the pictures printed and rushed them to him as he lay in hospital. He finally saw them on 5 December, 2007, and gave my mother the thumbs up. The next day, he succumbed to secondary cancer. That gets me every time."

Now that's a tear-inducing moment. Even if you aren't related to the guy.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at August 8, 2008 11:05 AM

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Comments

26 is one that always gets to me, and it's also the reason for my steadily increasing amount of Johnny Cash CDs.

And I've got to add in when Marlin sees Nemo in "Finding Nemo" and thinks he's dead. I get choked up just thinking about it.

Posted by: Paul at August 8, 2008 1:12 PM

Here are five off the top of my head:

* The part in the Diary of Anne Frank where she says "Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart."

* This song, "Shima Uta"

* War memorials generally

* The Velveteen Rabbit

* The end of A Prayer For Owen Meany

Posted by: Jeff Shaw at August 8, 2008 1:46 PM

I'm bawling just thinking about Velveteen Rabbit.

I happen to cry at "Field of Dreams."

Posted by: David Brauer at August 8, 2008 3:03 PM

"E.T." gets me every time.

Posted by: Joel at August 8, 2008 3:53 PM

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