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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Honoring one's debts |
| 2008-12-23 |
| FOR nearly 40 years, Gary Fenton, one of Australia's most influential television executives, has been feeling guilty about an unpaid debt. As a penniless 22-year-old backpacker in 1969, he borrowed a ferry fare worth £5 ($11) from another traveller, and promised to send the money when he could. Now, Mr Fenton has quietly paid back British man Jim Webb - with interest. This week Mr Webb, 72, arrived at his home in England's north to find a hand-delivered parcel containing £200 ($439) and a note: "To Jim Webb, a good man. From Gary Fenton, a tardy payer of debts." . . . "When I got back to Australia after hitchhiking around the world 40 years ago, I was broke and I went back home to live," he recalled. "After I got my first pay cheque, I said to my mother, 'Where's that address that was on the mantelpiece?' "She said, 'I don't know, it must have been thrown out.' " Six months ago, a year after their mother's death in Melbourne, Mr Fenton's brother sent him a box of his mother's belongings. "She kept all the cards and letters I had sent her from when I'd travelled, and out fell the address," Mr Fenton said. Knowing he had an upcoming trip to the UK, Mr Fenton decided to visit Mr Webb and honour his debt. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #1 Nice story. When I saw the headline, I had thought it might be about genuflecting to one's mortgage(s). Merry Christmas (and a big stay safe to my fellow Marylanders in the vicinity of the now-aptly named River Road.) |
| Posted by: eLarson, on leave in Wisconsin 2008-12-23 12:39 |