What's Worth Knowing

The Beardsley Boys Learn What’s Worth Knowing

Amadeus and Timmy Beardsley, after receiving a holiday gift from their father, discovered there was a catch. They were asked to give half of it away! Fortunately for the LCM Community Health Foundation, the Beardsley boys decided to share their gift with the “smallest things” indeed — the newborns in LCM’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

When Amadeus and Timmy delivered their gift to the Foundation, LCM’s Manager of Women’s and Children’s Services Judy Wolstein invited them to tour the NICU, meet the nurses, peek inside the incubators and see the specialized equipment. “What a joy to meet these two young men! I truly appreciate not only their gift, but also their concern for these little ones,” said Wolstein.

Experiencing the unique world of the neonate, with its miniature blood pressure cuffs and the tiniest diapers imaginable, left a lasting impression on all three Beardsleys. With memories of Timmy’s beginnings in a similar NICU, coupled with his sons’ decision to share their gifts with these small infants, Pete expressed his gratitude. “From this experience, they now have a lasting reminder of how some babies begin their lives and how precious and delicate those first days really are! That was the intent of my Christmas gift to them, to have them give something very special rather than just receive more junk, and also, to somehow provide a lifelong memory.”

Wendy Lustbader, in her book “What’s Worth Knowing”, interviewed seventy-, eighty-, and ninety-year-old “ordinary people” and asked them to share the single most important piece of knowledge each had gained through a lifetime of living. Having raised children, made mistakes, survived hardship, and ultimately having discovered what truly matters, they’ve gleaned the secrets of surmounting life’s challenges and attaining its joys. “Happiness is in the smallest things,” concluded interviewee Bernice Miller, age 61. Little Company of Mary volunteer Pete Beardsley shares Miller’s sentiment and wanted his young sons to learn this lesson.

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