A story to tell...

I paraphrased this from Boom-Boom's (Jimmie Saied) autobiography. It's Oscar's story...enjoy...

Assaid “Oscar” Saied’s Arrival (my great-grandfather on my mom’s side)
In the spring of 1894 my great-great grandfather, Said DeGaish, came to America with his eldest son, Assad (my great-grandfather), where he hoped to find a better way of life for the family left in Syria. He purchased steerage-class tickets on a steamship for approximately $10 each. During the voyage Said became deathly ill with smallpox. He was separated from his 16-year old son at Ellis Island in New York and taken to a hospital where he died. The family learned through research many years later that he was buried in a pauper’s grave in Manhattan.

Alone in the world with scarcely few familiar signs of sustaining life, Assad was at the mercy of the immigration authorities. As the story goes he was marked for deportation because of association with his smallpox stricken father. The mark was literally a chalk mark on his coat. However, seeing that he was a very healthy young man an immigration officer had compassion for Assad and gave him a new coat, saving him from deportation.
Grieving from the death of his father and isolated in the world, Assad, by the grace and guidance of God, managed to find his way to some family in Kentucky, who helped him become a traveling dry goods salesman. In his travels he met his future wife in Oklahoma Territory, married, settled down and had 9 children. Assad never gave up and knew that God had saved him from death and deportation. His faith and legacy laid the foundation for his dynamic family.

(Paraphrased from my grandfather’s autobiography, The Musical Trail of a Rag Merchant’s Son)