This story came to me while I was meditating. This lifetime was thousands of years ago,  I think...we didn't even look exactly like people look now.

We lived in tribes in caves.

I was a strong man, a hunter and a warrior in my youth (very young by today's standards).  The climate was usually cold, I get a feeling of Northern Europe.  I had a wife and children and a beloved sister.  During a fierce battle with a neighbouring tribe, I was struck in the left side of my left knee joint with an arrow. The people in my tribe including my wife took care of me, but were only able to get the shaft of the arrow out, leaving the arrowhead embedded in my left knee.

I got very ill with a high fever from infection. It was the custom for my people, when someone was too sick or injured to "carry their weight" to put them out of the cave, where they usually died from starvation or the elements. It was agreed by all, including me, that this was what had to be done with me. No one felt bad, it was just the way things were. So I was carried outside the cave, and another man even took my place at my hearth with my wife and children.

My sister came outside and implored me to return to her hearth, her husband agreed that though unusual, this could be done, as his wife loved me so.

Years went by, I healed but was never able to walk again. My sister's husband    hunted and fed me along with his family without complaint. I spent hours with the children in the tribe and was a great storyteller. My own children were there also, but I was no longer their father and I felt no resentment about this.

When I was an old man (probably around 25),  there was a particularly harsh winter.  Food was scarce and hunters often retuned empty handed.  I was sleeping in my place near the fire when I woke to hear my sister and her husband talking.  He was complaining about having to feed me, was very resentful toward my sister.  He had always been kind to me so I was surprised.  It was obvious that his anger would only escalate and that he would take it out on my sister, though the next day he spoke to me in a friendly manner as though nothing had been said. That night while all slept, I crawled with difficulty outside the cave. It was snowing very hard, very cold, it didn't take long for me to die. I just went to sleep.

In this lifetime I have had several injuries to my left knee area.  The first was a gash requiring stitches when I was a child. I have also had fractures on two separate occasions, then an injury that damaged nerves permanently.  I then had a torn Meniscus, they told me then that my knee cap  "Wasn't even in the right place."  More cartilage has torn till now I basically have no cartilage left in that knee.  I also have torn the ligaments in that knee sometime since my surgery last year. I also do have a sister who is devoted to me and a brother in law who turned out to be a real creep, even though for years I thought we were friends.