'Gram of the Week (1/17/11 - 1/23/11)

Small world!

The man called inquiring about sending his Mother a singing telegram for her 80th Birthday. He asked a lot of questions and was insistent that the messenger could sing very well, because his family was a musical family and they were going to be overly-critical of the performance.

I assured him we were professional and that he, his Mother, and his family would enjoy the personalized song that we wrote in honor of the Birthday girl.

I started gathering information and though I was singing to Mom, the son spent a great deal of time talking more about the volunteer work his father did. Somewhere through the fog of writing the information down, I began to focus on exactly WHAT the volunteer work was that his father did.

For years his Dad has volunteered at a local hospital, bringing candy and ice cream to the sick children; trying to make their days a little brighter. I stopped writing to look again at the last name of the woman to whom I'd be singing: Oshinsky.

I asked him, "Is your father MIKE Oshinsky, from Valley Stream?"

The son hesitated and replied, "yes he is"

"And he volunteers at Schneider's Childrens Hospital?", I continued.

"Uh.........yes", was the reply

I knew his father very well. My daughter was a patient there for three years, having been diagnosed with ALL in late-2002. By the time she was discharged, there was no proper way to thank everyone at the hospital for what they did for all of these sick children. My daughter always looked forward to his visits and Mike always let her have an extra Italian Ice because she's allergic to chocolate.

"I know your dad and he's an angel from God! I will personally deliver this telegram", I said.

My wife and I made up a basket of gifts for both the Birthday Girl AND her husband.

Upon delivery, it took a little jarring of the memory ( after all, it had been some five/six years since we had seen each other), but Mike finally remembered our daughter and my wife ( "Yeah, she's an artist! She does calligraphy and draws a comic strip!", he said).

The Japanese Buddhists call it MYOHO; that which cannot be explained.

Oh, yeah...........BTW, the family loved the telegram. They asked me to stay for dinner at the restaurant!


Kerry
Preppygrams