The following six-part series is excerpted and adapted from The God and the Ghost: Two Grandfathers, a work in progress.*** The author's grandfather, Edward M. Gertz, c. 1949.My father dreams about his father. Dad’s ninety. Poppy’s been dead for thirty-four years.In these dreams, Dad and Poppy, both adults, have a great, feel-good father-son relationship, man to man, as equals. Things were not, in reality, quite that way. Poppy’s shadow fell over my father like a sheet of lead. A long sheet, too: I’ve spent most of my life wearing it as a suit that felt great to have on but when...
Party Time! Excellent! Wade’s World Saves Library
Dwayne Wade has accomplished a lot in his career. He won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. Men's Olympic basketball team. He won an NBA championship as a member of the Miami Heat. He was even named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. But to Edward Leonard Sr. all of this is overshadowed by another of Wade's accomplishments: he kept his boyhood library from shutting its doors.On September 10, 2009 Wade donated $25,000 to the William Leonard Public Library in Robbins, IL., a suburb of Chicago. The library, founded by and named for Edward Leonard's father, was...