Below is background information, as framed in a 2018 letter to my sister and two brothers..

Dear Siblings:

Having taken a page out of the book of Ruth Ann (and a few million others), namely that the contents of a box must be allowed to age properly, over several years preferably, before the contents may be lifted from their repose and brought into the sometimes harsh glare of artificial light, I had left unexamined a box lifted post-mortem from Dad’s storage facility.

All I knew is that there were papers inside, unfortunately not including the category of stock certificates, and they pertained to his father.

The materials turned out to be quite interesting, in a surprising way, namely the question of how one Harry Melcaef Howitt spelled his middle name. Since I have yet to pay off on the $50 I have put up for anybody who spells my middle name correctly, it being Melcaef, this is an issue near and dear to my heart, at least on those days when my jump shot is off.

Maybe karma was in play; I just recently passed a landmark birthday and a meeting scheduled for this morning had been postponed, meaning that the excuse of no time to examine the contents of the box was no longer operable. Now, if middle name spelling is the topic, I had to be all in!

Here is a list of those pieces of paper on which the name was spelled as simply Harry M. Howitt:

Will, tax return, deed, social security letter, grand lodge communication, check, invoice, business card.

In addition, grandma Allene’s will listed her husband as Harry M. Howitt.

One 1917 draft notice had the middle name as Metcalf; another had it as Melcaef. Government administrative consistency apparently was as elusive a century ago as it is today.

The Bureau of Vital Statistics indicated that the birth certificate read Harry Melcalf Howitt; damn, have I been wrong all these years! Who do I sue!

Ah, but wait – there is a copy of an original document attached to the communication immediately above. It was mailed to Grandpa’s mother Isabella, who was married to William Howitt for those who are keeping score. This copy tells a different story.

Unless one believes that a single name with only seven letters would be written by the same hand with both a tall looping letter “l” and an “l” half the size of the former (which is what an open letter “e” resembles ), the correct spelling is …. drum roll please:

                                                                HARRY MELCAEF HOWITT  

There is no question that sleep will come easier to me tonight knowing this to be the truth regarding our grandfather and … myself.