Verhovayak Lapja, 1950 (33. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1950 / Verhovay Journal
VOL. XXXIII. FEBRUARY 15, 1950 51 NO. 2 OFFICIAL NOTICE In accordance with instructions from the Board of Directors, I hereby call to the attention of all branchmanagers and officers as well as members of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association that the NEXT MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS WILL BE HELD BEGINNING MARCH 27, 1950. Those who wish to contact the Board of Directors in regards to any kind of official business, should inform the National Secretary of their intention to do so not later than March 20, 1950. Matters received after the above time limit or during the course of the meeting, shall not be discussed and the Board of Directors shall not consider them until the following meeting of the Board of Directors in September, 1950. JOHN BENCZE, National President. A BOY LIKE THIS DESERVES A BREAK — The true story of a young Verhovayan’s heroic struggle for survival. — We wish you could meet this boy. He’s nice, as nice as they come, with bright eyes in a clean-cut face that lights up as we enter. His smile mqjces you feel welcome, even though he doesn’t get up from his chair, but the cane resting between his legs explains that well enough. You see, he just had his morning exercise, walking three times across the room, and now he must i est. But he doesn’t look tired, on the contrary, the expression on his face gives you the idea that he just had accomplished something big. And so you realize that to walk that much really has been a great adventure for him.. There was a time when it didn’t look like he would ever be able to do it again. That teas iwo years ago, when he was 15 ... For long days and nights that dragged into weeks there seemed to be no hope for him . . . His body, consumed by fever, crucified by pain,, seemed to waste caoay... Doctors, nurses, hardened to the sight of suffering, turned from his bedside ivith reddening eyes ... and bowed their heads to avoid looking at the mother whose mute question no one could answer .. . He survived, however, and there was much rejoicing. That is until... it was found that the terrible pains abated only to make way for... paralysis ... From the middle all the way down to his toes, there seemed to be no life in his body. The paroxysms of pain in the consuming fire of fever were terrible, brit this was — worse. And it became still worse as the weeks went by and became months, ivith each hopefully awaited day arriving and ending with the dreadful verdict. No change. It had to be faced. Mother and father had to be told. “He may never regain the use of his legs ... but then, there still is a remote possibility that he may learn to use them to a limited extent.” And that was all the hope his parents could be given. He wasn’t told, of course, but when the months turned into a year, he knew, without having been told ... As he looks at you now, his brightly smiling eyes don’t tell j you of the dreadful despair that lived in them when his brothers and sisters surrounded his bed a year ago to sing: “Happy birth- j day to you..Horror widened his eyes then and suddenly he turned his face to the wall and threw his arms over his eyes and ears ... and the song suddenly broke off in the middle... and the birthday mood lay shattered on the floor around his bed ... Out of the despair of that moment his will to live was born. His father and mother, his brothers and sisters didn’t know that... They only had the dreadful feeling that they had killed him... And for days it looked like they did, too... No one could make him smile after that for a long time ... Until months afterwards... when with two crutches under his arms ... he TRENTON BRANCH 13 EMBRACES FOURTH GENERATION GREAT-GRANDMOTHER, GRANDMOTHER, MOTHER AND BABY DAUGHTER represent four generations of Verhovay members in one of the leading families of Branch 13, Trenton, N. J. The fourth generation baby is Kathleen Virok, born last December, happily resting in the arms of her first generation great-grandmother, Mrs. John Nemeth, who was born in Hungary in 1879. Standing to the right behind Mrs. Nemeth is her second generation daughter, Regina, Mrs. Alexander Virol: Sr., who was born in Trenton, N. J., on November 3, 1901 and married Alexander Virok on February 4th, 1923. To the left stands her third generation daughter-in-law, Mrs. Alexander Virok Jr., the former Magdalene Mrazik, charming young mother of baby Kathleen. Read more about this splendid family under the male counterpart of this picture inside this edition. made the first two steps all by himself... Then the crutches started to tremble and he would have fallen had his father not grabbed him .. . But it was then that the first hint of a smile flickered across his face ... So you see, to him it is a marvellous accomplishment, a ivondrous adventure that he can walk three times across the room with merely a cane in his hand... No wonder he can smile... Few mortals have ever accomplished a greater deed ... He knows he is going to beat it. He icon’t be a cripple, no, not for ever! But he also knows the limitations of what he can accomplish„ He is seventeen years old ... Still a boy, but in suffering, in patience, in will power and achievement he is a man ... A wise man, with a rare, beautiful wisdom . .. Most of the boys of his age live only for the present, but he lives in and for the future. His mind reaches far ahead and wrestles with the most adult problem: how to make a living when at last he will graduate from his chair to the street? It didn’t use to be a problem,. It was understood that as the oldest son he would go to' the mill where his father worked. In fact, he couldn’t have gone too soon, for ívhat with strikes, lay-offs and rising vrices there never was enough money to make ends meet. But. of course, that is out of question now. (Continued on page 2)
