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Re: [OM] Story: A Special Birthday OM

Subject: Re: [OM] Story: A Special Birthday OM
From: Robert Winters <prairiewinters@xxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 09:27:39 -0800
Kelton

A great story of your father.  I enjoyed every bit of it.  And it shows the
caring people can demonstrate when they are moved. Morgan and John did not
know your father personally, but that did not stop them from showing their
kindness and concern for you and your father.  Hats off to humanity!

Bob Winters  Washington State

> From: Kelton Rhoads <krho@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2001 08:45:20 -0800
> To: "Olympus List" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [OM] Story: A Special Birthday OM
> 
> "We spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are
> threescore and ten . . . "
> 
> Sorry to write such a long message, but this is important to me.
> Yesterday was my dad's 70th birthday.  His name is Gayle, which means
> "her father's joy." (I guess my grandparents didn't do their research.)
> Fathers come in all varieties, and among other things, mine was one who
> was enthusiastic about just about anything that caught my
> interest--including OMs. When I spent nearly my entire bank account on an
> OM-1 and 50mm lens as an 8th grader in 1976, he was the one who found
> something extra for the 75-150mm and later, a 24mm Zuiko. As I was
> rediscovering Olympus in the early 1990s, Dad obligingly shared the
> interest again. As an educator, his time was a little more flexible than
> most, and he could occasionally slip off to a morning swap meet. In the
> pre-eBay years, he snagged a couple of bargain Zuikos and gave them to
> me, including a couple of 50s, a 100, and a 200. One day, however, he was
> exceptionally lucky and found a chrome OM-2 sitting on a seller's
> blanket. But another customer was closer and had seen it first. "How
> much?" asked the customer. "$20," said the seller. The customer put it
> back on the blanket and Dad pounced. That OM-2 gave him good service for
> a year but then quit. A Shutterbug reader at the time, I had located a
> "bargain" Olympus repair service in the advertising pages and sent it in.
> The camera worked for another year and then quit again. By that time, I
> had discovered this list and had learned about John Hermanson, so I sent
> it to John (www.zuiko.com). It has, of course, worked flawlessly ever
> since, and has been an excellent host to the Zuiko zoom lenses that dad
> has received on birthdays. (I have the primes, Dad has the zooms.) About
> 2 years ago, dad retired. Having been a minister, a teacher, & a school
> principal, it was surprising to see him become increasingly shy and
> taciturn. I had missed some of the transformation during the hectic year
> of my dissertation, but upon graduating and returning to California, I
> found him to be distinctly more pensive and withdrawn. I mentioned this
> to his physician. I thought perhaps if Dad and I spent some time
> together, he would come out of his shell. So, when I drove up to Las
> Vegas to meet Gary Reese and provide Zuikosamples for his lens tests, I
> took Dad along. It was an odd trip, because dad would only speak when
> spoken to. He would not volunteer a comment or utter a word unless
> prompted, and he found nothing on the trip interesting, except breakfast
> at the Casino where we stayed. Gary Reese probably remembers him only as
> a shy, retiring old man who was eager to be helpful but generally
> disinterested in conversation. This was a very different personality from
> the enthusiastic, take-charge, interested-in-anything Dad that I knew.
> After the trip, I again called Dad's physician and pointedly commented on
> his personality change. Eventually, the physicians found a brain tumor in
> Dad's cerebellum. He survived the surgery and targeted (proton) radiation
> in good shape, and within several weeks, wanted to hit a swap meet. I
> recall his walking most of the swap meet, and riding in the wheel chair
> for only the last portion of it. When the physicians thought Dad had
> recovered sufficiently from the surgery, they performed a routine
> preventive procedure for brain cancer survivors: full-brain radiation. I
> found out later that, while no choice (and precious little information)
> is given to the patient or his family about this procedure, full-brain
> radiation is performed because there is about a 30hance that a brain
> tumor will recur. Thus, full-brain radiation is a safe and conservative
> strategy (from a health provider's standpoint), but had disastrous
> results. Since radiation, dad has virtually lost his ability to walk and
> to control a host of voluntary, involuntary, and cognitive functions that
> you and I take for granted. For the past year and a half, he has been
> interested in nothing, says nothing, does nothing. As he says, "I know
> I'm not right." He has essentially become another, different person since
> radiation. Occasionally, a fragment of the old dad will float across his
> person and quickly vanish. The only thing that holds his interest for
> more than a moment are beautiful things. He will stare for hours at
> something he considers to be beautiful. This gave me an idea, so I
> contacted Morgan Sparks for a skin for Dad's old OM-2
> (http://homepages.together.net/~msparks/leathers/index.html). I told him
> this was to be a birthday present for Dad, and Morgan sent me a beautiful
> natural lizard skin. Unfortunately, I omitted mention that Dad's camera
> had the less common square, rather than rectangular, MD badge. Morgan
> offered to create a special skin, and asked that I send the original skin
> for him to use as a template. I did so, but I sent the skins during the
> Xmas rush. Despite delivery tracking, a "temp" postal worker failed to
> deliver the package (which contained both the original synthetic skin and
> Morgan's rectangular-badge lizard skin. I offered to pay for Morgan's
> lost skin but he would not hear of it.)  Morgan contacted John Hermanson
> for a sample of a square-badge skin, and the two of them worked together
> to create a new template, allowing Morgan to make a custom skin for Dad's
> camera. The skin arrived in time for me to re-cover Dad's camera, to add
> a "focus-noncritical" 28mm Zuiko (complete with Olympus filter and
> "funnel"), and present it to Dad for his 70th birthday. His eyes widened
> as he recognized his old OM-2 in the sumptuous new covering, and I could
> tell that he was touched as I told him how Morgan and John had rushed his
> custom skin to me in time for his birthday. I caught him playing with the
> camera and peeking through it while he was alone--it's a rare thing for
> dad to do anything but stare or sleep when unattended. This is a good
> sign! I think that on my next visit I'll take him to a local arboretum
> and see if he is interested in taking pictures of flowers with his
> stunning, leather-skinned OM. To Morgan and John I say: your kindness to
> this old man on his birthday will not be forgotten. You can see Dad and
> his camera at http://home.earthlink.net/~rhoadside/om/bday.jpg
> 
> Kelton
> 
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