53. Al

In November 2017 I got a voicemail and text from a Japanese film maker who was making a documentary about Einstein's brain for NHK Broadcasting.

She told me there was a record of correspondence at the National Museum of History and Medicine. It was a request from William Huckabee from Ohio to Thomas Harvey, the pathologist, on November 1, 1993 for a "request for specimen."

She believed this to be from my Dad, and wanted more information. Was he a scientist? Did he do research on Einstein’s brain? Had he ever heard back from Thomas Harvey?

My dad was in fact not a scientist, but a market researcher. And I was pretty darn sure he had never done any research on Einstein’s brain. . . but I was starting to get an inkling of what might be going on.

So I fired off an email to my family: “Does anyone know anything about this?”

Fifteen minutes later I got an email back. Not from my dad (William B. Huckabee – who had died the year before) but from my brother Al (William A. Huckabee – who was very much alive).

In 1993 Al had read a magazine article about Einstein’s brain. The article said that after doing the autopsy, the pathologist, Thomas Harvey, stole Einstein’s brain so it wouldn’t be cremated. And he kept it in his closet. In a cookie jar.

So Al, age 24, living in Ohio, naturally wrote Tom and asked for a piece. Of Einstein’s brain.

Why did he do this you ask?

Because Al is quirky and curious and adventurous.

Because if Einstein’s brain was just sitting around in a cookie jar, it seemed logical that Al should have a piece to put on his coffee table!

Al is one of the most unique people I know. He is serious and light-hearted. He is respectful and irreverent. He is erudite and down-to-earth. He is open and private.

And mostly, being around Al makes me feel more like myself.