Walter Passed, Didn’t He?

Dear reader, can I tell you a story of a whimsical and heartwarming story of two unlikely friends?  About 25 years ago, my friend Sherrif buys a house in an historic Toronto neighborhood. Walter, his next door neighbor, brings him a pie. Over the years, Walter and Sherrif grow a friendship because of Sherrif's dog, a Jack Russell terrier named Seven. They have no fence between their yards. One day, Sherrif asks Walter about a peculiar plant that looks scraggly most of the year. But in the spring, it blooms beautiful yellow petals. “What’s that flower?” Sherrif asks. Walter tells me that he brought that plant from Germany. At first, my mind went somewhere practical. I remember thinking, “How on earth did you get a plant through customs?” But that flower was the last connection he had to his sister. It was the flower in the last photograph he had of her before she, along with his mother and father, perished in the Holocaust. Walter opens up more. He shows him books about his family. He shares that Steven Spielberg interviewed him for a Holocaust documentary. He tells him about being put on a train and sent away. “He was one of the most extraordinary ordinary people I’ve ever known,” Sherrif says.  “Walter taught me that some of the greatest lessons don’t come from famous people. They come from people who quietly carry stories we’ll never know if we don’t ask.” One spring, Sherrif asks Walter: “Can I carry on the yellow flower in my yard.”  He clips a piece and plants it in his garden. Walter lives many more years with a slow moving form of leukemia. Each spring the Yellow flowers bloom. Walter’s health begins to worsen and Sherrif notices that he is in and out of the hospital. “My kitchen windows looked directly out toward Walter’s house,”  Sherrif says. “One morning, I look out while doing the dishes and the flower is in full bloom. It’s blooming like I had never seen before.” Sherrif calls Ellen, his wife. “Walter passed, didn’t he?” “How did you know?” she says. “Because the yellow flower bloomed.” Sincerely, Robert About Sherrif Karamat: Karamat, CAE, is President and CEO of PCMA and CEMA, the world’s largest community for Business Events Strategists, providing senior-level education, networking, and market intelligence for the global business events industry. He is a past Chairman of the Events Industry Council’s (EIC) Board of Directors and now serves as a member of the Board. He is also a Board member of the Exhibitions and Conferences Alliance (ECA) and the Titans of Chicagoland. Additionally, Karamat is a member of the George Washington University’s Leadership Council for its Masters in Tourism Administration program. Karamat on Dear World & Robert X Fogarty “Dear World gave our community something rare: an experience that did not just sit on the agenda, but became part of the emotional architecture of the conference. Robert and his team know how to use the keynote stage, the activation space, and the closing session as one complete story." PS: Want to forward or learn more about Robert and Sherrif? Use the same link: https://stories.dearworld.com/book/walter-passed-didnt-he