A True Story

Thomas E. Wiener, 32°, K.C.C.H.
One Belmont Ave., Ste. 605, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania 19004–1609

A son recalls his father's heartwarming story about the good work of Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas.

Photo: Illustrious Samson Wiener, 33°
I read with interest the article "A Hospital That Is a Family" by Brother Charles E. Seay, Jr., 32°, K.C.C.H., in your October issue of the Scottish Rite Journal. I always read anything about Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children (TSRHC) because it has a very special place in my and my family's heart. My father, Ill. Samson Wiener, 33°, a member of the Valley of Dallas, was President of TSRHC for a number of years and had been involved in some way in the Hospital for over 40 years at the time of his death in 1986. I thought the Journal's readers might be interested in a true story my father told me of what actually happened to him while President of the Hospital.

He and my mother were eating in a cafeteria in Dallas, when a woman walked over to him and introduced herself and said that she knew he was a Mason by the pin he was wearing (his 33rd Degree lapel pin). She said she knew he would know nothing about what she wanted, but she had to thank the first Mason she saw for the fact that her son had walked unaided out of the hospital that morning after having his legs treated there. Words could not express how grateful she was to the Masons for taking care of her son. She said she felt so much better now that she had thanked a Mason, and she left. What she didn't know, and my father didn't tell her, was that he knew all about her son, and he had tears in his eyes after she left. What a wonderful coincidence!

The Hospital was my father's pet project during his life, and it still means a lot to my mother, my sister, and myself. I completely agree with Brother Seay about the Hospital's being a family.

Thomas E. Wiener
is an attorney in the suburbs of Philadelphia, was raised in and is a Past Master of University Lodge No. 1190, Austin, Texas, and is a member of the Austin Scottish Rite Bodies. A Past President of his synagogue and an elected member of the National Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Reform Jewish movement, he is the newly elected First Vice President of the North American Federation of Temple Brotherhoods.