My late Uncle Hector was a very outgoing and gregarious guy and was known to have been able to get more businesses to join the Chamber of Commerce in New Orleans than anyone else when he worked with NOPSI. He was also a great handy man and could fix almost anything, so he helped a lot with practical things at his local Catholic Church.
It was neat when I worked at the New Orleans Council on Aging in the late 1980s and helped to administer authorized payments for the "Helping Hands" utility payment assistance program for the disabled and elderly of NOPSI - eventually to become known as Entergy - that I would interact with many folks per the utility company who had known and cherished Uncle Hector.
So many folks would share stories about "the Super Mex," as Uncle Hector was sometimes affectionately called in reference to my dad and his ethnic heritage; some other Baby Boomers out dere will also recall the famous Hispanic Golfer, Lee Trevino, who was sometimes referred in dat manner.
When there was a need to develop a new parish close to where he lived in the 1970s, he was picked by the diocese to help get some hefty donations from some of the well off local church members.
So Uncle Hector had heard about “Mr. Jones” being a devout Catholic philanthropist living not too far from him who had just moved into the area.
As noted, Uncle Hector had developed great people skills, like my own dad did from my grandpa, so he had keen insights and a "Dale Carnegie" approach to bringing out da best in others - including generously opening their wallets!
One Saturday morning, he went to Mr. Jones' house without an appointment and rang the door bell. The butler answered the door and asked Hector if he had an appointment.
When the answer came back as negative, the butler stated, “Mr. Jones is still in his pajamas, and even if he was properly attired, he wouldn't consider seeing you since you did not have an appointment – goodbye!”
Many folks, including myself, would've taken that response in stride and just moved on ... as I did often when I was a Kirby Vacuum salesman the summer after I had graduated from high school and went door-to-door selling.
So guess how my enterprising and persevering Uncle Hector handled that?
Super Mex came back one hour later to Mr. Jones' mansion dressed in his own pajamas, rang the door bell and got past that butler and was able to get a very sizable donation from Mr. Jones that enabled the new church building to be built.
The moral of the story: don't ever give up when a door may seem to be closed! You never know what opportunity may be knocking at that door!
“Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you!” (Lk. 11:9, Mt. 7:7)
