From my buddy, Bob................
A man named Robert L. May, depressed and broken hearted, stared
out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night. His
4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing. Bobs wife,
Evelyn, was dying of cancer. Little Barbara couldn't understand why her mommy
could never come home. Barbara looked up into her dad's eyes and asked,
"Why isn't Mommy just like everybody else's Mommy?"
Bob's jaw tightened and his eyes welled with tears. Her question
brought waves of grief, but also of anger. It had been the story of Bob's life.
Life always had to be different for Bob. When he was a kid, Bob was often
bullied by other boys. He was too little at the time to compete in
sports. He was often called names he'd rather not remember. From
childhood, Bob was different and never seemed to fit in.
Bob, after completing college, married his loving wife Evelyn
and was grateful to get a job as a copywriter at the Timothy Eaton Department
Store, in Toronto, during the Great Depression. Then he was blessed with his
little girl. But it was all short-lived. Evelyn's bout with cancer stripped
them of all their savings and now Bob and his daughter were forced to live in a
two-room apartment in the poorer area of Toronto. Evelyn died just
days before Christmas in 1938.
Bob struggled to give hope to his child, for whom he couldn't
even afford to buy a Christmas gift. But if he couldn't buy a gift, he
was determined a make one – a storybook! Bob had created an animal
character in his own mind and told the animal's story to little Barbara to give
her comfort and hope. Again and again, Bob told the story, embellishing
it more with each telling. Who was the character? What was the story all
about? The story Bob May created was his own autobiography in fable form.
The character he created was a misfit outcast like he was. The name of the
character? A little reindeer named Rudolph, with a big shiny nose.
Bob finished the book just in time to give it to his little girl on Christmas
Day. But the story doesn't end there.
The general manager of the T. Eaton Store caught wind of
the little storybook and offered Bob May a nominal fee to purchase the rights
to print the book. They went on to print, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and
distribute it to children visiting Santa Claus in their stores. By 1946,
Eaton's had printed and distributed more than six million copies of Rudolph.
That same year, a major publisher wanted to purchase the rights from Eaton's to
print an updated version of the book. In an unprecedented gesture of
kindness, the CEO of Eaton's returned all rights back to Bob May. The book
became a best seller.
Many toy and marketing deals followed and Bob May, now remarried
with a growing family, became wealthy from the story he created to comfort his
grieving daughter. But the story doesn't end there either. Bob's
brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, made a song adaptation to Rudolph. Though the
song was turned down by such popular vocalists as Bing Crosby and Dinah Shore,
it was recorded by the singing cowboy, Gene Autry. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer” was released in 1949 and became a phenomenal success, selling more
records than any other Christmas song, with the exception of "White
Christmas."
The gift of love that Bob May created for his daughter so
long ago kept on returning back to bless him again and again. And Bob May
learned the lesson, just like his dear friend Rudolph, that being different
isn't so bad. In fact, being different can be a blessing.
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