Kelton,
Thank you for posting this very touching story.
-Nick
Kelton Rhoads wrote:
>
> "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 found him to be distinctly more pensive and withdrawn.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 30 hance 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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