Our Uncle George, Our Prince And The Name Will Be Popular Now

A well-known speaker started off his seminar holding up a $20.00 bill. In the room of 200, he asked, "Who would like this $20 bill?" Hands started going up. He said, "I am going to give this $20 to one of you, but first, let me do this."

 He proceeded to crumple up the $20 dollar bill. He then asked, "Who still wants it...?" Still the hands were up in the air. "Well," he replied, "What if I do this?" And he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty. "Now, who still wants it?" Still the hands went into the air.

 "My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what I did to the money, you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth $20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come our way. We may feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value.

 Dirty or clean, crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who DO LOVE you. The worth of our lives comes not in what we do or who we know, but by WHO WE ARE.

 You are special-Don't EVER forget it.

These are very profound words, not mine, but surely what I truly believe.When I was a little child, my cousins, my brother and I were shown what true beauty was. We had a blind uncle and his name was George which will probably become a very popular name now that the new Prince is named it. We all loved this guy from within all of our hearts. My brother Herbert  and I  adored this man so much and he was the brother of our Mom, about two years or less younger than mom Lea. This was the way he was born, they said due to something that went wrong at delivery. He grew up among his six brothers and sisters and graduated a seeing high school which was rare in those days of about 1924. He went to Baltimore City College High School and then he went on to become a very admired and honored medical secretary for the finest doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In those days, he transcribed the notes of the doctors into typed pages and all of them requested he be their transcriber. He also played the piano of course by ear and he could hear a song and a minute later, his fingers were playing it. We had to buy the sheet music for songs to learn to play it on the piano.

He was well versed in the goings on in the state and city and the world by listening to the radio. He taught my brother and I advanced piano techniques and though we played well for our young ages, no one played better than our darling Uncle George.

So no matter what handicaps a person may be born with or he or she acquires through old age, they are worthwhile, good, honest people and they strive as we all do to better themselves.

He read with quick fingers Braille books and newspapers. His fingers gracefully pressed on the Braille dots and he could tell you everything about anything there was to know. He had a very lovely voice and we use to tease him, he should go on the radio with that melodious manly voice. We loved him so and though he had no children in his marriage, he in turn loved all of us. My brother and I liked to think he kind of loved us two a bit more than the other cousins who were his nieces and nephews. When his wife passed on, we were all worried about how he would live by himself and that he did for about six months and amazingly, the woman were all running after him immediately. He could have his pick and he chose one and married her and they were devoted to each other as he and his first wife had been.

He belonged to a small combo and he and they played at weddings, confirmations, club parties and plays and everyone loved him. At my wedding fifty-three years ago, he was a guest, but he went over to the piano several times during the evening and he played a special song for us.

He was my first person named George, I had a boyfriend when I was about twenty-three named George for a short while, but this George was a Prince to all of us cousins, his nieces and nephews.

There is a new Prince born the other day and his first name out of two others is George. He will someday be King a long time from now, but right now he is a prince.

I, one of the remaining nieces and nephews, several have passed on including my brother, and I shall remember my and our Uncle George as our first Uncle Prince. He was what you call a mensch (a good guy) and he will always be in my memories as a very special person who took on what life threw him, much adversity being blind, but he succeeded in applying all the other attributes he owned and made them into an honorable living at work and in society.

Emily Dickinson said in one of her writings Far as the east from even, Dim as the border star, Courtiers quaint in kingdoms, our departed are. I take this to mean that folks like my Uncle George remain as good, remembered souls. You will never lose your value. Just like the rumpled $20.00 dollar bill, your worth is who you really are. Here is our uncle Prince, the first George in our universe.