When I was a poor-but-industrious and honorable 15-year-old, my younger sister, Gretel, and I yearned to participate in December's great ice-skating race on the canal. We had little chance of doing well on our handmade wooden skates, but the prospect of the race and the prize of the Silver Skates excited us and fired our dreams.My father, Raff Brinker, was sick and amnesiac, with violent episodes, because of a head injury caused by a fall from a dike, and he could not work. My mother, Gretel, and had to work to support the family and we were looked down upon in the community because of our low income and poor status. I had a chance meeting with the famous surgeon Dr. Boekman and begged him to treat my father, but the doctor was expensive and gruff in nature following the loss of his wife and disappearance of his son. Eventually I persuaded Dr. Boekman to examine the my father. He diagnosed pressure on the brain, which could be cured by a risky and expensive operation involving drilling a hole in his skull and plugging it with my finger.I offered my own money, saved in the hope of buying steel skates, to the doctor to pay for my father's operation. Touched by this gesture, Dr. Boekman provided the surgery for free, and I was able to buy good skates for both myself and Gretel to skate in the race. Gretel won the girls' race, but I let a friend who needed it more win the precious prize, the Silver Skates, in the boys' race.My father's operation was successful, and he was restored to health and memory. My family's fortunes were changed further by the almost miraculous recovery of Mr. Brinker's savings, thought lost or stolen years before.My parents lived a long and happy life. Dr. Boekman helped me go to engineering school, and I became a successful engineer. Gretel also grew up to enjoy a happy adult life.