I took the job in the new company and was lucky enough to get a semi-detached house
to rent that was about ½ a block from the job. The only bad part about the job in the
beginning was, it was the Grave-Yard shift. There was a window that opened next
to the sidewalk, so my wife would cook me a complete meal and hand it in the window
every night, about 3:am. This started a lot of dissention among my co-workers, as they
were brown bagging it and I was getting a full blown, hot meal every night.
They complained to management and also the union and I had to ask my wife to stop.
That was the beginning of other things that I didn’t like about the company’s rules. I got
so fed up one night that I simply walked off the job ( ½ half a block away) and sat on my porch until daylight, drinking beer and smoking cigarettes.
The night shift manager stopped over after his shift , and tried to convince me to
come back to work the next evening – basically telling me that I was the only one that had the ability to do the job properly. I said, “Can my wife still bring me a hot meal ?”
The answer was flatly, NO, and so was mine. Of course, I was told I would never get
another job in this area again, they would black-ball me.
Later that day I called another company and asked if they needed an industrial electrician
that was credentialed – bingo – had another job for more money, starting the next day.
I was at the new job for about 2 weeks and the maintenance supervisor ordered me to do
a job the was extremely unsafe. I went to him in private and explained the hazards of this
task and he just laughed and said, if you don’t do it, I will fire you. At that moment, left
with no choice, I decked him, and told the others what happened, and left that job too.
I was later to find out, that the other employees had gone to upper management and laid
out the story of what really happened, rather than his rendition of it - he got fired. I was not asked to return.
I continued to have similar problems with various work places. At one point, I had 13 jobs in one year and my tax man asked; “How did you manage to work at 13 jobs in one year and have an accumulated amount of time off that added up to 3 months and still make more money than the average working man?” I really had no answer.
It was obvious, even to me by then, I had a real attitude problem that needed to be controlled. I was to work on that as time went on.
During the period of time I wasn’t working, I was keeping busy, working on the side
with my landlord, who was Amish. His name was Jesse Stoltzfus. He was building
small houses and I would do all the electrical work and get it passed by the inspectors.
One day Jesse said he would like to make a special Buggy that had Head lights, turn signals and brake lights, just like cars. He said he would construct the Buggy if I could figure out how to
wire it up. Actually, figuring out how to wire it up was easy, getting the parts to do the job was a lot harder. I went to a farm supply and found they had a lot of the things I could use as most was used on street worthy tractors.
Well, we started and within about two weeks we had a running and working model.
Jesse was so proud, he took his new Buggy to Church and showed it off. There was only one problem, the Amish do not use electricity of any kind, except for their milking machines.
The milking machines were operated by a 24 volt DC system and the battery I put in it was a regular 12 volt auto type. I had to come up with a charging device that you could use in conjunction with his milking machine. I had done all this as a favor to a friend, neighbor and a landlord. What I didn’t know was that a whole new industry just erupted for the Amish and it was being built by the Amish and sold to the Amish. I was dumb enough to leave the electrical prints in his shop and the literature on all the electrical equipment. Everything anyone needed to make another one was there. I guess I have the distinction of being the first ever to build a working model for the Amish, that is still being used even today.
Getting back to earning a living, I became so frustrated about the way I was being treated by employers and supervisors, I decided to get into management. I vowed to myself that I would never be the kind of boss that I had endured these last few years.
It was correspondence courses and night school and any thing else that I could get an
education from as cheap as possible as by now I had 4 children and a stay at home wife.
I became so wrapped up in the educational process that I had worked out for myself that
I was just as consumed with it as I was before with drinking, gambling and hoo-rawing
around after work. It was so bad that I wasn’t paying attention to the kids or anything
else. My wife asked me, one day, to find something that I could include the family in.
Believe it or not, I decided to learn to play the guitar and I took lessons to get the most out of it. Actually that worked out a lot better that I thought. We, as a whole family,
Could get together as often as we wanted and sing songs and in general, have a good time. As time went on, one of my daughters learned to play the violin, another learned
to play the piano and the guitar. She also sings professionally and has some albums out.
In the meantime, I was still doing the courses and night schools as I could. My goal was to become an electrical engineer. I also had a part time job at a Vo-Tech School as an
adult education instructor in basic electricity and basic electronics.
Finally, I was 34, going on 35 and decided to make my move toward management. I applied through an agency at one of the Mega-Bucks Companies many miles away. I was told by that agency that my chances of getting that job was slim to none. I said I wanted to try anyway. I was supposed to meet the Plant Engineer at 7:30 in the morning
at the main gate of his company. I was not familiar with the city or the company, so I
drove up a couple of hours earlier than I should have. I was nervous and needed to have
something like a cup of coffee and maybe a donut, something, anything. I kept driving
on the city’s main drag and saw a “Dunkin Donuts” place and stopped there. When I went in, there was only one other customer. I decided to sit next to him as he was well dressed and so was I, besides I also needed someone to talk to.
We started out discussing the weather and so on, but as time went on, I shared my real reason for being there and why I was at the donut shop for coffee. He allowed me to
continue talking and he would ask me questions now and then. He seemed very friendly and I was in one of those moods where I was extremely open. After about an hour into the conversation, he told me his name was Robert Noel, he was the man I had come all this way to be interviewed by. He said to follow him and he would get me through the gate and on to his office.
He took me for a tour of the entire facility, which took about two hours and then said,
“Do you think you could handle a job of this magnitude?” My answer was, “ I would
love to give it a try?” He said he had a lot of other applicants to consider, but he would definitely consider me.
Two weeks went by and I was ready to try again with another company, when I got a
call from the agency, saying that I was hired and they couldn’t believe it.
The name of that company was “York Division of Borg Warner” located in York PA.
I was the Electrical Maintenance Manager for all three plants in the city. The Grantley
Plant, the East York and the West York plants combined. This was far beyond my
wildest dreams and now, proving my self was next hurdle.
Have you ever heard the phrase “It was blessing in disguise”, in 1972 there was a major
flood in the city and many large companies were simply shut down due to water damage.
York Division had large ovens for special manufacturing purposes and I had let it be known that any company in York that needed to have motors and other equipment dried
in our ovens, to just bring it to our loading docks. Up until then, no one knew who I was, but suddenly, every small company knew who to call to get in line to dry their equipment.
It got to be so big that, as always, upper management took some control, but internally gave me the credit. I was probably the only man in middle management that could ask for an appointment with the company President and get one. At that time, there were over 3800
Employees in the company, including all three plants.
After the flood, the company wanted to build a subsidiary in Madisonville Kentucky and I was asked to go down there from time to time to assist in the construction overview.
They had a variety of engineers and project managers working on that job, but somehow I would always be asked for opinions on various things. One of those things was, based on all the equipment that was in place and considering all that I was aware of, could I make an evaluation and projection of what the electrical billing would be for the first month and possibly for next six months. When the first month’s billing came in, my projection was only $3 off the actual billing. The billing for a facility of this size goes into more than $1800 a month, at that time. Wow, was that luck or what ???
By this time, there was absolutely no doubt about it, my future was secure with this company and I was looking back to the time I had made the “Promise” to the Light.
Have I kept it, I wasn’t sure.
My goal to become an electrical engineer had not yet been realized and I still wanted it.
Most men would have been satisfied with what I had, but I was still going to special schools that the company had and others that they didn’t. My thirst for knowledge was
a driving force I wasn’t able to control.
Then one day, out of the blue, another manager in York Division told me that he had submitted my name to a person, who was on the board of a Hospital and they needed some one with my particular background, education and experience. He said that the hospital would call me on Saturday of that week at about 2:pm and if I was interested to be home.
I was very skeptical, but I did answer the phone and was offered the opportunity to come to a small town in PA. to be interviewed by Hospital administration and the Property Committee of The Board of Trustees. To make a long story short, I was interviewed two
different times and they would not meet my monetary requirements. I kept saying “NO”.
I had forgotten all about the interviews and one day, just before Labor Day of that year,
I received a call from the Chairman of the Property Committee of that small town hospital. He asked me if I would meet him at a certain field, on Labor Day outside of the city. I said that I knew where it was and would be there at about 1:pm that day. He said he had a helicopter and would meet me there and that there would be a picnic table in the middle of the field with a large umbrella on it. There would be 1 pitcher of lemonade and 2 glasses on the table. I re-confirmed, I would be there.
I did show up and he landed his helicopter. He walked up to the table and handed me a
small pocket tablet and a small yellow pencil, poured some lemonade into his glass and said; “Write down your number”. I really didn’t want to work in a Hospital as I was very
comfortable with York Division and knew I was in line for Robert Noel’s position as Plant Engineer. So what did I do, well, I wrote a number that was so outrageously big, I never believed for one moment it would be considered. I never said a word, but I gave the pocket tablet back to him. He got up, looked at the tablet, put the tablet in his shirt pocket and said one word.
“DONE”, I was shocked and of course, I was had, as an honorable man, I couldn’t back out. I said: “Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, wait a minute” he said, you have 30 days to report in, I will make the necessary arrangements.
WOW, what have I done, I have just stepped into a world I knew nothing about and
I was really worried. I did give notice, and was also given a letter, written by the President of York Div. of Borg Warner, that if I changed my mind, I could return within the next six months and with a raise. I still have that letter to this day. At that time I was 37 years old and I was still wondering if I had kept my “Promise”.
End of Chapter 5
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
A whole new world of understanding
Here I am, working for a Hospital in a small community, basically trying to figure out just what my job really is. In a very short amount of time, I found out that the hospital had 5 maintenance managers over the last 18 months. What was really wrong here?
I decided to find out why and found that the answer was ridiculously simple. The Administrator was just about 62 years old and there was a movement among some of the board members to remove him from his position. It would be done in a quiet way that was not supposed to hurt his feelings, but yet to get the message across that he was way behind the times and needed to be replaced.
He was very strong on being able to run the physical plant and he believed that no one could come in and just take over and do it. So, every one that was hired, he undermined
and made life very uncomfortable for them so they would quit. I found out later, he actually paid people to come to his office and tattle on me and others. His way of doing that was to give them a raise of 10 cents an hour every time they had something of importance to share with him.
I soon learned how to create illusions that were taken to him and upon his reactions he was looking worse and worse every time. His ability was being questioned almost every day. I simply did to him what he did to so many others and he finally resigned. He never did find out how the whole thing was done to him. During the short time that I knew him, I came to really dislike him. He was a very devious and vicious man.
Another man was hired to be the Administrator and I got along very well with him until he moved on to a better job.
During the early years of my tenure with the Hospital, there was a fire created by a welder in the construction area. The fire quickly spread to the basement of the Hospital. I can recall, going into the immediate area of the fire and I suddenly couldn’t breath, the smoke was so thick.
After the fire was put out, by the local volunteer fire company, there were many meetings with Hospital Administration and the Board as to how we were going to get the Hospital back in operation. The best estimate made by professionals hired to review damage and follow through with clean-up and restoration was 45 to 60 days.
I had some experience with that type of restoration so I made a presentation to the board that I could do it in 30 days or less. There was one provision, and that was to stay out of my way and let me do it, also the insurance companies had to agree to finance it. I had told the Board and Administration that the manpower already existed in the form of employees that would normally be out of work. Get the unions to agree to allow their employees to work for me during that restoration period and I can do it.
It was agreed by all to give me Carte’ Blanch and allow me to get us up and running. To make a long story short, we had the Hospital operational in 11 days, working 24 hours a day, as the same employees had worked the shifts before. It was a period that people made friends with others they never knew existed before as they all had the same goal.
Again, this was another time, I was in the right place at the right time, and had the opportunity to prove myself and gain respect with the governing body of the institution.
One of the advantages I had when I was hired, was that I not only reported to the Administrator, but also to the Property Committee of the Board. I could not be fired by the Administrator, unless the Board agreed. That clause remained in my contract until I retired from the Hospital in 1992.
While I was at the hospital, I was responsible for the physical plant, housekeeping, laundry and was the immediate overseer of all the building projects that the hospital had.
That, by itself, gave me awesome authoritative guidelines. I was very careful not to ever abuse them or misuse them. I also came up with some very innovative ideas on how to save money on very large scales. One such idea was to have all the lighting in the hospital parking lots be part of the municipal lighting. The hospital pays a fraction of what it would have cost if they took it on as an operating expense. Big savings!!
I made an arrangement with the PUC and the local Natural Gas Company to purchase the fuel to run the hospital boilers under a special contract with the state. Over a period of time, this saved millions for the hospital and the community. I engineered the first Heliport in the community on hospital grounds and it still operates today.
During my tenure with the Hospital, I finally did become an Electrical Engineer with the help of an Electrical Engineering firm in Pittsburgh that sponsored me. I was listed in the very prestigious “American Society for Hospital Engineering” for years.
I have a list of what I believe to be “Significant Accomplishments".
· Created Preventive Maintenance programs for industry and institutions such as hospitals and nursing homes
· Created a Bio-Medical Department
· Arranged for the hospital to have an uninterruptible primary fuel source (natural Gas) through a contract directly with the P.U.C. at the state level, thus saving the hospital approximately $250,000 per year.
· Created an unusual arrangement with the municipality and the power company where-by the hospital does not have to pay for any of it’s outside lighting, parking, etc;.
· Created a way to process laundry (commercially) to look smell and feel as good as home laundered. In other words, it’s soft, fluffy and extremely white. It’s also less expensive to produce using conventional methods. It will pass all the PH and bacterial tests known to be necessary to provide a top quality product.
· Designed and created a Nuclear Medicine Department without the help of Architects or any other outside agency. It passed the Nuclear Regulatory Agency inspection the first time around.
· Redesigned a new Maternity Suite to fit into an antiquated setting by using creative cosmetic renovation techniques.
· Designed and built a heliport for the hospital, fully licensed and permitted in accordance with the National Bureau of Aviation - It's the only Air Port in town.
· Lastly, and the most important accomplishment was keeping a promise to myself about how to deal with employees. I always treated them with respect and maintained an open door policy. I helped them deal with each other, I helped a couple of them financially, I promoted the most deserving to higher positions. Even today, many years later, when I see them and discuss the “old days” with past employees, it’s a wonderful feeling to have them say, “I wish you were still there, we didn’t know how good we had it, until you left.”
This is to name just a few of the accomplishments in a lifetime. There are so many more.
I have reached every goal I have set in front of myself to accomplish and I am now retired from professional life. I have a part time job with a local Ace Hardware Store and keep up with local activities.
I have a few Web-Sites that I promote and I belong to one of the fastest growing MLM businesses in the world. Who knows, I just might become a millionaire, which happens to be another life’s goal. I am now well over 70 years old, and most, if not all of my close friends that, I either grew up with or worked with, are gone. I am the only one left. I am making new aquaintenances every day, but not really close friends. My wife still has a respectable circle of friends, and that is good for her.
Here is a sad thought, the day I retired and was leaving the job site, I had mentioned that there is no need to be upset and that I would make every effort to keep in touch with everyone. The statement given back to me by some one that I had considered to be very close to, said; and I quote “Don’t’ bother, there is nothing you can do for me anymore, you are no longer in a position of power.” That hurt, so much, I have never forgotten it.
I now have, only one, really close friend and I have never met her, in person. She is a treasure in my life and I talk to her every day from my computer. Someday I will meet her and her family. She has promised me a really big Hug. That is another life’s goal.
I had mentioned that something mystical seemed to be going on surrounding my life. Well, if you go over my life very carefully, and read it again. I always seemed to be protected from the worst of life’s nasty things that can happen. One of the most unique things is that in all of my working life, I have never been promoted. I learned how to promote myself.
In addition to the previously mentioned things, there were some things that have happened since I retired.
One is, when I retired, I couldn’t make enough money to sustain our lifestyle. In fact, it got to a point that there was no money at all, except a small retirement check every month.
I was not eligible for Social Security yet and no one would hire me in my profession. It was too easy to hire kids right out of college, cheap, just as long as they had a Sheep Skin.
During this period of time, I invented a machine that would sterilize equipment cold rather than hot. It was going to cost mega-millions to get all the Regulatory Agencies to approve
For medical use, so it never got really of the ground, but I did get a patent.
In doing so, it really cleaned out our savings and I lost my home. However, the way the cars were purchased from the dealer, I was able to keep them. If I wouldn’t have had the car, I would not have been able to recover, because, by then, I was selling Life Insurance to make a living and I did that for 9 years with the same car.
I have recovered from Bankruptcy and all the other things that happened to me after I retired and quite frankly, my income level is far more than most younger people I work with or know, including my own family. They still come to Dad for money when they need CASH.
The very last thing that happened, I was taking my wife out to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary on the eve of the anniversary. We were going to an upscale restaurant and upon arriving a said to my wife that I must go to the men’s room. I thought I had a little attack of diarrhea, but it was pure red blood. I was taken to the hospital in that city and, of course, survived – but, later found out that it was the only trauma center that could have saved my life and the restaurant was only 1 mile from that hospital. If I would have stayed home that night, I would have died from blood loss and complications.
Also, there were two times I was diagnosed with cancer, operations were performed and I didn’t have chemotherapy – WOW, how often does that happen.??
I am in my 70's at the present time and I don’t know why, but I expect to live until I am 106, so I have at least 30 plus years of creativity to enjoy life and give to humanity.
I am still not a deeply religious man, but I do believe in God, as I am positive there is something out there that has watched over me, all my life, and is still doing it today.
You can call it anything you want. I am also a firm believer in Guardian Angels.
I still wonder, after all these years, if I have kept my “Promise” to the “Light”.
Just in case you are wondering - This is a true story !!!
I dedicate this story to the woman I have loved for over 50 years. She has stood beside me in the best of times and the worst of times. Most women would never have put up with me in those early years. All I can say about that is, I DO know how to pick 'em. Her name is Doris.
End of chapter 6
I decided to find out why and found that the answer was ridiculously simple. The Administrator was just about 62 years old and there was a movement among some of the board members to remove him from his position. It would be done in a quiet way that was not supposed to hurt his feelings, but yet to get the message across that he was way behind the times and needed to be replaced.
He was very strong on being able to run the physical plant and he believed that no one could come in and just take over and do it. So, every one that was hired, he undermined
and made life very uncomfortable for them so they would quit. I found out later, he actually paid people to come to his office and tattle on me and others. His way of doing that was to give them a raise of 10 cents an hour every time they had something of importance to share with him.
I soon learned how to create illusions that were taken to him and upon his reactions he was looking worse and worse every time. His ability was being questioned almost every day. I simply did to him what he did to so many others and he finally resigned. He never did find out how the whole thing was done to him. During the short time that I knew him, I came to really dislike him. He was a very devious and vicious man.
Another man was hired to be the Administrator and I got along very well with him until he moved on to a better job.
During the early years of my tenure with the Hospital, there was a fire created by a welder in the construction area. The fire quickly spread to the basement of the Hospital. I can recall, going into the immediate area of the fire and I suddenly couldn’t breath, the smoke was so thick.
After the fire was put out, by the local volunteer fire company, there were many meetings with Hospital Administration and the Board as to how we were going to get the Hospital back in operation. The best estimate made by professionals hired to review damage and follow through with clean-up and restoration was 45 to 60 days.
I had some experience with that type of restoration so I made a presentation to the board that I could do it in 30 days or less. There was one provision, and that was to stay out of my way and let me do it, also the insurance companies had to agree to finance it. I had told the Board and Administration that the manpower already existed in the form of employees that would normally be out of work. Get the unions to agree to allow their employees to work for me during that restoration period and I can do it.
It was agreed by all to give me Carte’ Blanch and allow me to get us up and running. To make a long story short, we had the Hospital operational in 11 days, working 24 hours a day, as the same employees had worked the shifts before. It was a period that people made friends with others they never knew existed before as they all had the same goal.
Again, this was another time, I was in the right place at the right time, and had the opportunity to prove myself and gain respect with the governing body of the institution.
One of the advantages I had when I was hired, was that I not only reported to the Administrator, but also to the Property Committee of the Board. I could not be fired by the Administrator, unless the Board agreed. That clause remained in my contract until I retired from the Hospital in 1992.
While I was at the hospital, I was responsible for the physical plant, housekeeping, laundry and was the immediate overseer of all the building projects that the hospital had.
That, by itself, gave me awesome authoritative guidelines. I was very careful not to ever abuse them or misuse them. I also came up with some very innovative ideas on how to save money on very large scales. One such idea was to have all the lighting in the hospital parking lots be part of the municipal lighting. The hospital pays a fraction of what it would have cost if they took it on as an operating expense. Big savings!!
I made an arrangement with the PUC and the local Natural Gas Company to purchase the fuel to run the hospital boilers under a special contract with the state. Over a period of time, this saved millions for the hospital and the community. I engineered the first Heliport in the community on hospital grounds and it still operates today.
During my tenure with the Hospital, I finally did become an Electrical Engineer with the help of an Electrical Engineering firm in Pittsburgh that sponsored me. I was listed in the very prestigious “American Society for Hospital Engineering” for years.
I have a list of what I believe to be “Significant Accomplishments".
· Created Preventive Maintenance programs for industry and institutions such as hospitals and nursing homes
· Created a Bio-Medical Department
· Arranged for the hospital to have an uninterruptible primary fuel source (natural Gas) through a contract directly with the P.U.C. at the state level, thus saving the hospital approximately $250,000 per year.
· Created an unusual arrangement with the municipality and the power company where-by the hospital does not have to pay for any of it’s outside lighting, parking, etc;.
· Created a way to process laundry (commercially) to look smell and feel as good as home laundered. In other words, it’s soft, fluffy and extremely white. It’s also less expensive to produce using conventional methods. It will pass all the PH and bacterial tests known to be necessary to provide a top quality product.
· Designed and created a Nuclear Medicine Department without the help of Architects or any other outside agency. It passed the Nuclear Regulatory Agency inspection the first time around.
· Redesigned a new Maternity Suite to fit into an antiquated setting by using creative cosmetic renovation techniques.
· Designed and built a heliport for the hospital, fully licensed and permitted in accordance with the National Bureau of Aviation - It's the only Air Port in town.
· Lastly, and the most important accomplishment was keeping a promise to myself about how to deal with employees. I always treated them with respect and maintained an open door policy. I helped them deal with each other, I helped a couple of them financially, I promoted the most deserving to higher positions. Even today, many years later, when I see them and discuss the “old days” with past employees, it’s a wonderful feeling to have them say, “I wish you were still there, we didn’t know how good we had it, until you left.”
This is to name just a few of the accomplishments in a lifetime. There are so many more.
I have reached every goal I have set in front of myself to accomplish and I am now retired from professional life. I have a part time job with a local Ace Hardware Store and keep up with local activities.
I have a few Web-Sites that I promote and I belong to one of the fastest growing MLM businesses in the world. Who knows, I just might become a millionaire, which happens to be another life’s goal. I am now well over 70 years old, and most, if not all of my close friends that, I either grew up with or worked with, are gone. I am the only one left. I am making new aquaintenances every day, but not really close friends. My wife still has a respectable circle of friends, and that is good for her.
Here is a sad thought, the day I retired and was leaving the job site, I had mentioned that there is no need to be upset and that I would make every effort to keep in touch with everyone. The statement given back to me by some one that I had considered to be very close to, said; and I quote “Don’t’ bother, there is nothing you can do for me anymore, you are no longer in a position of power.” That hurt, so much, I have never forgotten it.
I now have, only one, really close friend and I have never met her, in person. She is a treasure in my life and I talk to her every day from my computer. Someday I will meet her and her family. She has promised me a really big Hug. That is another life’s goal.
I had mentioned that something mystical seemed to be going on surrounding my life. Well, if you go over my life very carefully, and read it again. I always seemed to be protected from the worst of life’s nasty things that can happen. One of the most unique things is that in all of my working life, I have never been promoted. I learned how to promote myself.
In addition to the previously mentioned things, there were some things that have happened since I retired.
One is, when I retired, I couldn’t make enough money to sustain our lifestyle. In fact, it got to a point that there was no money at all, except a small retirement check every month.
I was not eligible for Social Security yet and no one would hire me in my profession. It was too easy to hire kids right out of college, cheap, just as long as they had a Sheep Skin.
During this period of time, I invented a machine that would sterilize equipment cold rather than hot. It was going to cost mega-millions to get all the Regulatory Agencies to approve
For medical use, so it never got really of the ground, but I did get a patent.
In doing so, it really cleaned out our savings and I lost my home. However, the way the cars were purchased from the dealer, I was able to keep them. If I wouldn’t have had the car, I would not have been able to recover, because, by then, I was selling Life Insurance to make a living and I did that for 9 years with the same car.
I have recovered from Bankruptcy and all the other things that happened to me after I retired and quite frankly, my income level is far more than most younger people I work with or know, including my own family. They still come to Dad for money when they need CASH.
The very last thing that happened, I was taking my wife out to celebrate our 49th wedding anniversary on the eve of the anniversary. We were going to an upscale restaurant and upon arriving a said to my wife that I must go to the men’s room. I thought I had a little attack of diarrhea, but it was pure red blood. I was taken to the hospital in that city and, of course, survived – but, later found out that it was the only trauma center that could have saved my life and the restaurant was only 1 mile from that hospital. If I would have stayed home that night, I would have died from blood loss and complications.
Also, there were two times I was diagnosed with cancer, operations were performed and I didn’t have chemotherapy – WOW, how often does that happen.??
I am in my 70's at the present time and I don’t know why, but I expect to live until I am 106, so I have at least 30 plus years of creativity to enjoy life and give to humanity.
I am still not a deeply religious man, but I do believe in God, as I am positive there is something out there that has watched over me, all my life, and is still doing it today.
You can call it anything you want. I am also a firm believer in Guardian Angels.
I still wonder, after all these years, if I have kept my “Promise” to the “Light”.
Just in case you are wondering - This is a true story !!!
I dedicate this story to the woman I have loved for over 50 years. She has stood beside me in the best of times and the worst of times. Most women would never have put up with me in those early years. All I can say about that is, I DO know how to pick 'em. Her name is Doris.
End of chapter 6
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