A story I remember

A family went to a Zen monk, on the occasion of the birth of a new baby. They asked for the blessing of the monk,and also for a little piece of wisdom. They wanted the monk to write for them something that might help give them strength and happiness when times were hard.

The monk obliged, and returned to them an envelope enclosing what the monk had written within it.

Later, when the family did face a tough situation one of the members opened the envelope to read:

"Grandfather dies, father dies and son dies. "