The Penny Black
The Philatelist's apprentice
After George finished school, he was ready to join university. However, as fate would have it, his life and that of his family changed, when his father got a heart attack and passed away, in the school where he was working as a janitor. George’s mother found it difficult to manage and take care of the family, which consisted of George who was the eldest and his three younger siblings, Evan and Mathew who were twins aged nine and his youngest sister Bella who was three years old.
George decided that college and university could wait as he needed to help his mother take care of the family, so he took up a job, working as an apprentice to a Philatelist in the city. Every morning, George would leave for work at seven in the morning to reach work by nine. He had to take a bus to go to the city and traffic was busy in the mornings.
Mister Harvey Abramovich, was an elderly gentleman, with a stooped back, possibly because you could always find him looking through a magnifying glass at the stamps in his large albums. He was a strict man, but he was determined to make sure that the young George learned a lot about stamps. George was a quick learner and it was not long before, he knew the designs, marks and signs of rare and minted stamps. He also enjoyed looking up the “Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue”, to check the prices of the stamps.
The old man Abramovich, had no family or living relatives, but he was a religious man and he visited the synagogue twice a week, on a Monday and on a Friday. One morning when George arrived at the Philatelist shop, he was surprised to see that it was locked. There was a notice on the door, stating that the owner, Mr Abramovich died at the weekend. The notice stated that the shop would be shut till further notice.
George was worried, he needed to find another job. He did manage to get a job working in a small shop selling stationery, he earned less money, but it was something and he could not complain. Three weeks later, there was a knock on the door of his home. George opened the door to find a man dressed in a suit. The gentleman was Ken Hilson and he was a lawyer who was representing the late Harvey Abramovich.
The young man could not believe his ears, the old philatelist had left him an inheritance, a penny black stamp, that was worth a fortune or the ownership of the philatelist store. Whatever he chose, the other one would go to the Synagogue, where Mister Abramovich worshipped. What would George do?
Guess which one he took, he naturally took the store because that was where he was most comfortable and he was happy looking through, researching, buying and selling stamps. He would be able to take care of his family for years to come and he did, as a good son and later, father to two young boys and husband to a lovely girl called Florence who worked as a florist.
Note: This story was inspired by a real Jewish bakery, “Nahoums” in Kolkata, India, that was owned by three brothers.
