Uncle Lou, No One To Remember You, But Me

My dad had a great philosophy. He always thought that today was great, tomorrow will be better and the next day the best. He had earned a lot of money when he was about thirty something and he married my mom and gave her a big diamond ring and built her a single family home which was rare in the nineteen hundred and twenties. She had a housekeeper named Alice to take care of the home and the daily work. She did not buy fancy clothes or belong to country clubs. They lived nicely for several years.

All of a sudden, he lost his money during the Depression era, long before I was born. They had to move into a smaller home, no housekeeper and things were as they say tight. They had a son and five years later a daughter, me and by then things were very money deprived.

She still had her diamond ring and that was about her most expensive item left over of the well to do times. He always had this same

Philosophy that tomorrow will be better. He had loaned in his prosperity, lots of money to his younger brother and a brother-in-law who was down and out. They never paid him back.

The brother kept my dad in the dark not telling him in later years that he had some money and he could have paid Dad back in installments. Instead this person named Lou let Dad think he also was down and out. He bought a store that sold wooden toys and once, we went there and he gave me a wooden small toy. He must have thought he was giving Dad something towards the money he owed him.

In a short moment one day, Dad fell at work and broke his back. All summer he was in a body cast from his neck to his pelvis with this broken back. The weather was horrendously hot and no air conditioners in those days, only small fans.

Uncle Lou came over every other week to visit and wore what I called his "poor suit." An ugly brown tweed suit which was rather shabby and a tattered shirt and old tie. He would bring dad a check for twenty-five dollars in a payment mode for his debt of thousands of dollars (which in those days was a monumental amount). Dad seeing Lou looking so tattered hardly could take the check as he laid in bed in this horrible cast. Mom said take it, we have two kids and we need it. The summer wore on and Lou stopped coming and so did the measly checks.

Dad got better and went back to work and we survived on his meager earnings. We were loved and had a home, food, clothing but very little material things. That was ok because we were all together as a family. Lou only had his ugly wife and no kids.We bought our first television set when I was fifteen and we all thought we were quite well to do. We loved watching this ‘movie’ screen that delivered the news, sports and a few comedy shows.

Many years later Lou woke up in the middle of the night and took a wrong turn and fell down the steps and died. I often thought he got what he deserved and my feelings were right. We found out after he died that he had owned a very large building in a business district and he never told dad. He left his ugly widow the building and other assets and we always thought he was the poor brother. Of course he was, he had no heirs to remember him, only me, remembering him as a brother who cheated dad and us while he played a game of being poor, so he would not have to give dad any money due him from all the loans.

Dad was and had been a good soul and helped his brother and brother-in-law with finances. The brother-in-law never had enough to pay dad anything.  He had a daughter who ran a day camp for kids and knowing her dad owed my dad lots of money, she got me enrolled in the day camp for a few summer weeks as a token of her good will toward Dad. Of course, Dad had to prevail upon her and ask her twice to do that for me, but she did with no cost to her. She told the camp authorities she was awarding a scholarship to a cousin (me) because Dad kept requesting this of her and she hesitated. He was persuasive in his desire that I be occupied in a worthwhile time and he felt he was owed something. I had a fun time that summer. It was the decent thing for her to do for Dad and what he had done for her Dad in his time of need.

Twenty-five years later, my brother was reading the daily newspaper and they listed assets left by people without heirs and the state would take them over if no one appeared to claim them. My brother called me up and said we, as heirs of Dad should try. We obtained a lawyer who told us that we had no legal proof other than a handwritten spiral notebook that Dad kept of what Lou owed him minus the twenty five dollar few payments that terrible summer of the broken back. The paper listed that Louis S. had a balance in an account of thirty thousand dollars and the state of Maryland inherited it. I hope the money went to someone who was poor and could benefit from it, as we could have way back then.

The lawyer could not take the case and the state of Maryland got the handout from Uncle Lou because his widow had died and she had no heirs. We were the rightful heirs but our only proof was the little spiral notebook, that could not be entered as proof. Dad never had Lou sign any papers that he owed Dad the money. Dad trusted his brother too much.

The moral of this sad story is that Dad and Mom and us two kids could have lived an easier life if Uncle Lou had tried in true brotherly courtesy to pay back his beloved brother Joseph for helping him out. He did not.

We survived and went on to be important people and though Dad or us could not get our hands on this money, we still came out better than Uncle Lou who died falling down the stairs and had no one to remember him, after his wife died. My brother and I remembered him with disgust. Now, I am the only one left of our family of four. There never will be anyone to think a nice thought about him. The recollection about him is that instead of doing the proper and decent thing, he chose the other way. He did not have a good heart or a good soul. I would rather be thought of as a decent person and reminisced about with happiness.

Shakespeare said “that one is virtuous and that is learned by watching the behavior,” I respond to behavior that is honorable and exemplary and see it many times in a week. I go to an ophthalmologist and I have mentioned her before and her name is Dr. Lee Alison Snyder. She is medical person, a wife, daughter and a new mom. Her sweetness is genuine and when she talks to you, she listens and cares about all you are saying. I sincerely believe she is compassionate about giving good care to her patients and is interested in them as people. She has a good heart. Uncle Lou did not. I would rather have a good heart than lots of money.

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