Now These Are People Making Massive Differences

I like to think that I’m making a difference in the world. Some days I think I do make a difference and other days? – well not so much. So, it’s natural that I admire anyone whom I think has made a difference, everyday.

You see, Hilton Kaplan’s like an everyday guy – who has accomplished great things. So has his partner, Daren Kwok. So his their son, Jacques Kaplan-Abrahams

Hilton and I met in high school in 1981 – we were in the same grade and had more than a few things in common. We both loved music and we both loved to party. We became good friends. After we graduated high school, I continued my studies in Johannesburg. Hilton went to medical school in Cape Town. Notwithstanding the 1,400 kilometres between us, our friendship endured. It even grew.

Hilton finished medical school and then went on to specialize in plastic surgery, working at Cape Town’s famous Groote Schuur Hospital. It was there that he met baby Jacques, four years old --- Jacques had been lying in his crib when embers from a nearby open hearth shot into his crib, causing third degree burns to 70 percent of his tiny body. Over the next 6 years, Hilton led the surgical team eight times to reconstruct Jacques’ severely disfigured face. Because the burns were so severe, Hilton also had to amputate one of Jacques’ arms and one of his legs, at the elbow and knee respectively.

Fast forward four more years – Hilton now lives in Los Angeles, running a successful firm (Dermogenesis) and he’s met his life partner, Daren. Hilton decides to renew contact with Jacques. Daren is supportive. Three arduous years later and after countless trips back to Cape Town – Hilton and Daren formally adopt Jacques as their own child. Jacques 14, had never left Cape Town, had never been to school, had been raised in an orphanage, had one leg and one arm and was illiterate.

Any sane people would have left Jacques (a liability for an intents and purposes) well alone. But not Hilton and Daren. They took him in. They fathered him. They taught him. They showed him love – and they got his love in return. They rehabilitated him, spending thousands of hours, not to mention dollars on bringing him up to speed on every facet of life.

I have visited with Hilton, Daren and Jacques. They live in Los Angeles and are soon relocating to New Jersey. They’re incredible. Their story is incredible. It’s like get-them-onto-Oprah-freaking-incredible.

What really is the impetus behind this posting is that just the other day, Hilton sent me pictures of Jacques’ high-school graduation. Jacques has graduated from high school now. He’s set to go to college this year. This from a once illiterate kid with half a leg and half an arm missing, with obvious facial disfiguration – who 15 years ago, did not stand a chance socially or academically - anywhere in the world. He could neither read nor write. He did not know how to use his brain




They’re beaming. Big. Now here’s people that matter and have made a difference. Not only to themselves, but to the world. They are walking examples that pretty much any difficulty can be overcome, or handicap dealt with.

And I have the gall to bitch and complain when my straight-A kids are a little obnoxious or turn in a B-plus grade on a Math test.

WOW!