Month: November 2021

As we sailed in to 2010 getting used to our new neighborhood and surroundings, things were getting interesting. Joe was finishing up another season with the PLFlyers and it went pretty well. Jimmy Watson was able to move Joe onto a new level and a new perspective. We would move on to a different path. Nick was cruising around with his drivers permit and getting ready to fly. Business was kind of boring actually while sales were few but buying scrap held center stage. It was business either way and earnings were steady. I was actually beginning a search online for the area that I thought would be the best for a future retirement/ investment property to buy within the year. It was a Zillow quest, hovering over neighborhoods on Google Earth and trying to nail down the perfect spot in Florida. East or West coast? The best view. On a golf course, With a pond view, near the beaches, quiet development, perfect location. No problem…would take me at least a year. I felt good though. The bills were getting paid, my staff were happy, we weren’t killing ourselves and my health was great. Hallelujah!

“You’ve got Mail”… was the response by my computer when I turned it on. My AOL was jumping. Like 50 emails waiting to sift through. One by one, I scanned down the list and there it was. The header was short but hit me like a ton of bricks. Dr. Druker/Jeff Keenan /CML Request. I took a few seconds to open it but I can’t lie, I was pretty anxious to find out what the esteemed creator of Gleevec and lifesaver of so many wanted with me. The email began with the usual pleasantries, ” Dear Jeff, hope you are well”. ” It has been 10 years since you started taking Gleevec with minimal issues. We know about your gastric issues and your fatigue, etc. Your PCR results are right on course and blood work almost perfect although your Hemoglobin remains low. Besides all of these findings my outcome was moving on positively and hopefully towards a curable situation once and for all”.The email continued….

“The Portland Oregon Center for Health Sciences and treatment of Cancer” is embarking on a study on Leukemia and the after effects of longterm Gleevec usage. The study would follow long time gleevec molecularly negative survivors who had been PCR negative for at least 5 years. Those patients who were selected would be able to stop taking their medication for as long as forever if weekly blood testing would prove that a lasting remission proved to be Leukemia free! Wouldn’t that be amazing! It was our choice to opt in or out as the patient eligible for the study. I jumped right in!

Blood testing would be done weekly as well as a bone marrow aspiration every month for six months. Our beginning marker was full 5 log remission. No sign of the protein that causes CML. Cold Turkey. No more Gleevec for at least 6 months. Dr. Druker encouraged me to speak with Dr. Dave and discuss the plusses and minuses of the study. The caveat was that any upward change towards positivity in the Leukemia markers, I would immediately be put back on Gleevec. Immediately!

OK DR. DRUKER WHEN DO WE START! Dr. Dave was all in, as well as my family. If I could become independent of this Chemo drug forever it would be amazing! We would begin the study in April and every week thereafter, a trip to Dr. Dave’s office for bloodwork for at least six months. Well, here goes nothing! Bye, bye, Brown Pill. I won’t miss you, but I could have never lived without you.

Next Up: Five Months…

Overboard. I think that’s what you call it when your home remodeling project extends into the fifth month and way over budget. Yes, we settled on Country Club Drive in April and it was now August. We still weren’t finished with construction and the school year was now approaching. This would be a logistical nightmare at this point. With Nick having to travel to Bensalem and Joe to Doylestown, our mornings would be awful. We were fortunate to have the temporary home in Fort Washington but we were also pushing that invitation. It was time to get it in high gear and get the house done!

Our contractors worked overtime, really my friends, and got us to the point of moving in by early September. Our good friend Vladik, who also lived on the Emlen House estate, agreed to drive Nick to school so I could take Joey to his school for the first few weeks. This was a real help. The move in to our new home would take place in mid September. So much work again but it went well and the finished and furnished house was beautiful. It took a lot of great friends and associates to make this happen and a great job was done by all. We were finally in! A new era for our family and a great accomplishment for Lori and I. It was now thirteen years from my original CML diagnosis and nine years since I started taking Gleevec. A huge life setback overcome. Other than my annual trip to Hanahmen Hospital for bloodwork and visiting Dr. Dave, the usual chemo pill side effects were all that were left of my journey. Let’s hope it stays that way, I can handle that.

Like I mentioned in my last post, Joe would move on and up a level with the Little Flyers. He was more than capable of playing at the next age level and welcomed by his new coach, Jimmy Watson. Jim was a former Philadelphia Flyer and Stanley Cup winner. He and his brother Joe were All Star Defenseman for the Flyers and helped win Philly the Cup two years in a row in the 1970’s. He was a gruff, no nonsense kind of guy and coach. No frills, no BS and no coddling. That was good for Joe. He would have older teammates and less drama. Joe and Jim had an interesting relationship but got along well. Hopefully, the season would work out well and Coach Watson would elevate Joe’s game. We shall see.

Meanwhile, the store was still busy buying gold. An essential piece of our business now since the US economy was tanking more every day. Inflation was rampant and the Stock market was still way down in the dumps. So many investors lost a ton of money. My sales were way down too and the holiday season was looking pretty grim. We would have to weather the storm and hope for better days. As long as the gold rush continued though, we would continue to survive and pay the bills. As far as the home front through the end of the year, all was quiet and we were enjoying the new digs. There was not much to report but an interesting email would come across my desk after the holidays. A proposition of sorts that would require a great amount of thought, discussion, investigation and guts on my part to accept. “Dear Jeff”… it began.

Next up: The Proposition

As the gold rush continued, the store was kept busy everyday. It wasn’t a crazy, tough, had to sell type busy, but a steady stream of eager customers ready to cash in on their treasures. Sales were declining, as predicted, but the profits from the refining made up for it. Even the repair business was taking a hit. Customers would rather sell their broken jewelry at this point rather than pay to fix it. Unless it was sentimental, of course.

Joey was finally castless now and raring to go. It had been five months since he was able to play in a game for the Little Flyers. It was killing him. The time had finally come for him to hit the ice and get back in the game. It was February now and the season was winding down. For the first time in three years the team was making a run for the playoffs. This presented a huge issue for Joe’s coach. Inserting Joey into the lineup at this point became a real problem. Not for the coach. Not for most of his teammates. But definitely for a group of parents who couldn’t imagine him coming back at a time like this and actually being a part of the team. It would be so awful if he let up a goal or made a mistake that ends up single handedly causing the team to end their playoff run. Really? Tough shit kid. Not our fault you broke your arm. Doesn’t matter that you have been a productive teammate for three years now. Disgusting and disheartening. Coach Gregg handled it just right. He suited him up and played Joe the rest of the season. Sure, he wasn’t one hundred percent but he eased back in slowly and gutted it out the best he could. As far as the playoffs… the season ended early and it was a team loss. The whole team. It would be Joe’s last with that team. I wasn’t going to deal with that BS anymore.

While the drama was playing out in the stands and we were going through the motions at the store, we finally sold our house in UM. Lori and I had put an agreement of sale into effect on our new home in Doylestown but needed to sell our current house quickly. It was coming into crunch time and getting really close to where it would be a real problem if it didn’t move soon. Well, BAM! A great offer came in and we were on our way! Settlement would be in April and the preparations were ramped up for the move. The new home in Doylestown was in need of some real alterations and repair though. We could move in and try to go room to room while we lived there or find a place to stay and remodel first. We chose the latter. Luckily, we had a place to stay for as long as we needed on the beautiful Emlen House estate in Fort Washington, Pa. where my father worked for many years. It was a huge home, one of three, on a 150 acre private enclave where President George Washington once camped with his troops during the Revolutionary war. It was beautiful.

Our family held the traditional “Moving” yard sale and packed the remainder of our furniture and belongings into storage. Moving is a real job! Settlement went well, although the owners of our new home were divorcing and the tension in the room was quite noticeable, if not comical. Especially when the wife forgot to bring any ID for the notary. After a long delay, the proceedings finally ended with a handshake on our part and a parting of ways on the other. Lori and I made our way to our new home and talked about what a great new beginning was about to unfold but the conversation would take a different turn and tone. Reminiscing and feeling sad about leaving and locking the door that morning on the home that we made for the last fourteen years. A mountain of memories that could never be washed away with the turn of a key and the signing of some papers. It was a great home. A loving home. We watched the boys grow up from babies and become young men. We beat cancer…twice! We celebrated birthdays, milestones, holidays and more! This house will surely be missed. As Lor and I pulled up to Country Club drive, great name eh, we would be embarking on a new adventure. A four month renovation that would make this place our own. Time to get to work. There were new memories to be made. We were ready.

Next up: Finally!!

The end of 2008 saw some great strides. Joey was managing the best he could with his compound fractured arm. His long cast was able to be removed after 12 weeks only to be replaced with a shorter one that went from his hand to his elbow. His arm was so thin and scrawny when the longer cast was removed. He still had another month to go with the short cast and then rehab into the new year. What a process. He was able to start skating again and looked forward to rejoining his teammates, hopefully before the end of the season. We would sell our house in UM shortly and begin the moving process to Doylestown. A lot going on.

Meanwhile, I was concentrating on the holiday season as it had been really busy at the store leading up to December. The 2008 holiday season would turn out to be the most lucrative month in Belaggio Jewelers history. We were slammed! Everyday, from Black Friday through Christmas Eve, we were busy. Inventory was flying out of the cases and I needed to bring in additional units of the usual big sellers to keep up with the demand! Diamond stud earrings, diamond tennis bracelets, custom colored stone jewelry, etc. It was crazy. My employees and I were spent after those four weeks. The coffers were full though and that always made going into the new year of business much less stressful. Of course, I would need to fill up the cases after the New year. Spend, spend, spend again. That’s the jewelry business.

Something else was happening in our industry beginning in 2009. A phenomenon that had only occurred once in my lifetime and a few years before I entered the business. The price of gold per ounce was rapidly spiking upward. Back in the early 1980’s, the price per ounce of gold jumped up about three hundred percent. It was a short lived spike but many Jewelers capitalized on the moment and were able to make some big money. Now, the same phenomenon was occurring as the US stock market began crashing along with other economies around the world. The go to investment in times like these is to buy gold as a safe haven for one’s portfolio. The trend upward in the price of gold had already started to rise in 2007 and rapidly began to accelerate in 2009. From $600 per ounce, to $700 and $800 and $900 per ounce. It topped over $1900 per ounce a year later. The jewelry industry would begin to see a huge increase in the cost of gold jewelry, especially chains, bracelets and any style of jewelry that contained mostly gold. The retail cost of newly manufactured jewelry, per gram, was skyrocketing every day. On the other side of the coin, as the price of gold continued to climb, so did the scrap price. Scrap jewelry is essentially jewelry that is unwearable, broken, not worn anymore, unwanted, etc. The condition of the piece didn’t matter or the age. We purchased it by the weight solely for the gold content. The purity of the jewelry set the price based on whether it was 10 karat, 14 karat, 18 karat, 22 karat or 24 karat. The higher the karat, the more we paid out. 24 karat is pure gold and offered the best return for your weight. Most manufactured 24 karat jewelry came from India, the Middle East or other far Eastern countries. 18 karat came mostly from Italy and European countries and 14 karat and 10 karat were the standards of jewelry manufactured in the US.

For precious metal dealers, this was a real boon. A gold rush of sorts and it wasn’t ending anytime soon. The price just kept going up and up. People were selling their personal gold like crazy. Personal jewelry, coins, inherited jewelry, you name it. For my business, it was wonderful, just like all of the other Jewelers in our country. Our days were consumed with sorting, cleaning, weighing, calculating and paying for scrap gold. Platinum and Silver too. All commodity prices were moving upward. I was able, as far as my business was concerned, to finally catch up with many old bills that had been weighing me down. Obligations that I had accumulated during the long road that was fighting Leukemia. Missing so much time from the business hurt me terribly. It was a situation that weighed on me every day. Making positive strides was the outcome of a good year of business and the start of the modern gold rush. We paid very fair scrap prices to our customers and refined the proceeds every week to make some profit. The major downside of the rush though, was going to be an inevitable drop in regular fine jewelry sales. Customers were selling many of their precious heirlooms with no intention of replacing them for a long time. Especially at the inflated cost for new jewelry. For now, let’s hope the gold prices keep rising and the scrap keeps coming. Let’s also hope that the Stock market gets healthy and our economy too. That needs to happen real soon. Overall, our country was hurting. The gold rush helped many people during this time. Especially me.

Next Up: A Sad Return and Goodbye