‘THE’ PERFECT COMBINATION?

I for one am very excited to know that a movie coming out by one of my all-time favorite actors is coming out soon. There are many connections to this film because of the subject matter and what it represents in this world today.
“Soon Mr. Roger's movie is coming out, and it brought back so many wonderful memories of the two of us watching the TV show Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I would often find you at Nanna's house with your mom when I got home from classes in college. We would sit in front of the TV on the floor and watch him, the Electric Company and another show I can't recall anymore. Seeing the coming attractions to the show brought back some wonderful memories of you as my first niece.
 Love, 
 Uncle Joe!”

The above was written recently to my beautiful niece Laurie Ann O’Hara when I read the news that the movie Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was showing soon in the movies. As you can tell it is something special to me. As a little girl, she would sit with her dolls or toys in front of her grandma’s TV and watch Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers. Depending on my schedule at the New York Institute of Technology I would sit on the floor with her and watch also. It was the experience of being with someone I love and was learning about as she grew.

Laurie’s dad John was my brother-in-law and was more like a brother, a good man who left his daughter all his wonderful traits, including common sense. When he passed a part of me passed too.

But Mr. Rogers was the show and we were his faithful viewers.

Then a few years later my brother-in-law Kevin was working at a college in Pennsylvania and invited a special guest, you guessed it, Mr. Rogers! One day Kevin shows up with a framed brand new dollar bill autographed by Mr. Rogers! He dedicated it to my daughter Ellen who is a victim of mental disabilities.

Then there is Tom Hanks, the man who has done so much artistically entertaining me for years. When I watch his acting I see things I never see in other actors. He has indeed raised acting to an art form and maybe one of the greatest of all times.

Of course, I must mention the man that made all this wonderfulness possible. Fred Rogers was a wonderful example of what we should all be and are not. A man of peace and love, good sense and kindness that transcended the TV screen and grabbed hold of your heart, just as it did to that little girl so long ago, and her crazy uncle who felt it also.