Eduardo who everyone called Eddy, grew up in a family that struggled financially. He was the youngest of five children. All of his great-grandparents emigrated from Italy to Halifax Canada. Halifax is the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and the largest city in Atlantic Canada.
The great-grandparents worked mainly in agriculture to support their families. However, Eddy’s father Bruno worked at Home Depot for many years. His salary was low and he wasn’t appreciated by his employer as he should have been. His mother Angela cleaned houses for a living during the day when Eddy and his brothers were at school. She insisted on being at home every day when her children came home from school and welcomed them with a freshly cooked meal.
There was no money for luxuries such as vacations or a new car. Bruno drove a used car that he couldn’t afford to replace for several years. The family was united and did almost everything together. Eddy and his brothers didn’t have many friends. The kids at school used to make fun of the old clothes they would wear. They called them derogatory names and refused to play with them. Many times they were not invited when there was a class party at a student’s house.
Eddy was an excellent student, and the teachers liked him. He had a dream that he would be a rich man one day. Eddy was giving private lessons to other students since he was 12 years old. He was also babysitting the neighbor’s children. Eddy would go to work with Angela when he was a little boy as she couldn’t afford a babysitter or to put him in daycare.
He was a curious boy who wanted to know about everything. He loved watching the National Geographic channel as well as Discovery TV. Thus while his mother was cleaning the houses, he would sit and watch TV. He would always tell his mother he would invent something one day and he would not let her work ever again.
Eddy had a hard time seeing his mother cleaning other people’s houses. He always thought she worked too hard and wanted to help her but was too young to help. Anyway, when he was 13, he insisted on going to work with her when he was on school break and helped her in any way he could. While his classmates were having fun, Eddy was tutoring other students. He managed to save some money and help his parents as well.
He was a beautiful boy but was quite short for his age. However, he started getting taller when he turned 13. At the age of 14, he was the tallest boy in his class and couldn’t be ignored anymore. Suddenly girls started paying attention to him. They wanted to be around him which put him in a very awkward position and made him feel uncomfortable.
The boys in his class who humiliated him in the past were now jealous of him as a result of the attention he received from the girls in the school. Some of them even changed their attitudes towards Eddy and tried to be more friendly with him.
Nevertheless, Eddy had a dream about inventing a cheap device that prevented adults from leaving children behind in the car by mistake. When he was 4 years old he was accidentally left behind on a school bus. His mother Angela would usually pick him up from the bus stop every day, but that day she sent his brother Shawn instead because she was tied up at the time.
Shawn was frantic when all the kids from their neighborhood got off the bus and Eddy wasn’t among them. He asked the driver “where is my baby brother?” The driver said that he hadn’t seen him. He added that this was the last stop and the bus was empty. He suggested they look for him at the school as maybe he was there. Shawn returned home in a state of panic and told his mother that Eddy wasn’t on the bus.
Angela called her husband Bruno and asked him to come home immediately. Both of them went to the school to look for their son. They went from room to room and asked anyone they met if they had seen Eddy. But they had no luck, as no one had seen him. At that point, they decided to involve the police who promptly began their search for Eddy.
Some of the police were looking for him using search dogs. Others were sent to speak with the children in his class who were on the bus and ask them if they saw him. A few of the children said they were sure he had been on the bus. Some of the policemen also went to check the bus. When the driver unlocked the bus, the policemen found Eddy sitting in a seat and shaking and crying. Luckily several windows on the bus were open so he could breathe fresh air.
However, he was in poor condition. The police covered him with a blanket, and also gave him some food and water until his parents arrived to pick him up. Eddy was very lucky as he was found a few hours after he was reported missing…………..
With Experience Comes Wisdom 