By Timothy D. Naegele[1]

This is a quotation that the actor George C. Scott delivered at the conclusion of "Patton":

For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph - a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave stood behind the conqueror, holding a golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: that all glory ... is fleeting.[2]

I have known billionaires, and famous politicians and movie stars[3]; and I have known those who have departed this earthly realm without leaving a trace, yet to me they meant everything.  Perhaps it is useful to repeat what I wrote about my only heroes in life:

My parents were a “golden couple” with everything going for them.  My father was in real estate; and he bought part of the Al Jolson-Ruby Keeler estate in Encino, California, which he planned to subdivide – keeping one of the building sites for us.  Plans were completed for a new, lovely home on it.  Then, like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, my mother was determined to have the convergence of two rare skin diseases: Lichen Sclerosus et Atrophicus and scleroderma.  They were diagnosed by doctors at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California, and later treated by doctors who had been trained at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, the state in which my parents were born and raised and where they met in grade school.  These conditions occurred before the advent of health insurance, which would have helped our family financially.  They affected only the right side of her body; and she came to my sixth grade graduation in a wheelchair.  Such conditions ceased abruptly when she had her right leg amputated; and she learned to walk with an artificial leg.

Years later, during the Vietnam War, she organized volunteers at the Red Cross’ offices in Westwood, California, where we lived and where the UCLA campus is located.  She was honored for the work that she had done by being named the local chapter’s “Woman of the Year,” in helping U.S. military families and their service members in the war zone connect and cope with the stresses of family emergencies in the states, and emergencies that the service members encountered in Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere that the U.S. was engaged.  My father worked seven days a week to pay the staggering medical and other bills; and my parents are my only heroes in life.

Today, as a result of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and other statutes, monumental changes have been made, which were not thought possible when my mother and father struggled with her wheelchair and other issues. For example, accessibility requirements have been levied on public accommodations, which means that simple things like curbs at the corners of streets have been rebuilt into ramps to accommodate wheelchairs; buses today have lifts for such wheelchairs; and the list goes on and on.[4]

Each of us has heroes or dear friends who are gone now, seemingly without a trace.[5]  When one searches the Web, their names do not appear.  It's as if they never existed, but they did exist; and they are important to each of us.  Mine include Annette H. Greer, who was like a second mother to me throughout my mother's illness and my father's financial travails, and throughout my life.

Like the dinosaurs, they did exist; and they must never be forgotten.  They were God's wonderful gifts to each of us.

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© 2024, Timothy D. Naegele

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[1]  Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass).  See, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-21-8-6  and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/accomplishments/  He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University.  He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at The Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service).  Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who in Finance and Business.  He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/ and https://naegeleknol.wordpress.com/articles/), and studied photography with Ansel Adams.  He can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com

[2] See, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patton_(film) ("Patton (film)")

[3] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/jerry-perenchio-kind-and-caring/ ("Jerry Perenchio: Kind And Caring") and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/edward-w-brooke-is-dead/  ("Edward W. Brooke Is Dead")

[4] See https://naegeleblog.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/timothy-d.-naegele.pdf, p. 380, n.3.

[5]  My "friends" include Charles L. (Collie) and Sally Conlon Collette, my great aunt and her wonderful husband who had been a military officer in Europe during World War I; my childhood friends Bob and Bud Lawton, John Markle and Gordon Lawson II; Paige Peterson Brown, a lovely woman whom I met at UCLA; Kenny Kahn, Dan Laitienen and John Richards, my fraternity brothers at UCSB; Harry C. Banford, with whom I worked in The Pentagon; George Gross, Benet Gellman and Francis M. Gregory, Jr. from my days on Capitol Hill; Allen L. Raiken whom I met when he worked at the Fed; Philip N. Brownstein and Morton Schomer, my partners in the practice of law; Jim ("James Baby") Plungis, who showed my kids and me the beautiful Bahamas, and the wonders of sophisticated boating and sport fishing, and who will always be irreplaceable; and Bill Turnbull, who tried his best to give me a "perfect" home on the beach at Malibu.