I remember well when my niece had a potential singing career taken from her by those who had no appreciation for an emerging young voice …. a career that might have taken her to the heights of international acclaim as an operatic Diva or at least to the stages of Broadway.

Her young and promising voice was first stilled by a chorus of “Hush up!” from an unappreciative audience traveling with her from her mother’s ancestral home in Kansas to Tucson in 1931.

The final and complete stifling of her singing career came from those who were expected to reach out and guide a gifted voice to the heights of recognition and success … instead, as a member of the Tucson High School Choir, she was pointedly asked by the music teacher to just stand in the Chorus and mouth the words, but for goodness sake don’t let out a sound.

But this brilliant young girl was not to be denied her claim to recognition and fame in some other field of endeavor, and truly believing in ” try and try again,” she turned to the culinary arts. Collaborating with her uncle, a connoisseur of chocolate fudge, she took her first step to a new potential career. Using an age-old family recipe, ingredients were measured and combined and made ready for cooking to the degree of specified perfection.

I will leave it to others to tell how this very capable and very very intelligent young woman had successful and rewarding professional careers … I could speak to that, but then I might get teary and who wants to see her uncle cry?