And when people cane to this city, they joined the local people in standing in a long line to buy Mario's Magical Chocolate, for there was nothing else as good.
But few people have known Mario's story and today, I'd like to share that story with you.
Many years ago Mario and his wife Maria came to this country from Peru. In Peru, Mario worked in the cacao fields, picking the beans that would become chocolate.
It was very hard work under the hot sun, in humid rain forest conditions but while Mario and Maria lived in poverty, he learned to recognize the best beans.
After they arrived here, Mario bought a pushcart and on that pushcart, he had just one thing to sell, pieces of chocolate.
Each day he would set up his pushcart on Main Street and people would line up to buy his homemade chocolate, until they bought his entire day's supply.
"This is the best chocolate I ever had," said one woman. "How does he make something that tastes so good," another woman asked.
These comments and questions were common and Mario always had the same answer. With a smile, he would say, "I have a magical ingredient." But he would never tell anyone what it was.
He and Maria bought a small cottage a short walk from Main Street, and each day after his chocolate sold out, Mario returned to the cottage, and began preparation of the next day's supply of chocolate.
His chocolate suppliers would deliver only the very best chocolate to his home, and then Mario would process the chocolate using his own formula, of which that magical ingredient was the most important part.
As the years passed, Mario and Maria had two children, a boy and a girl, and after they grew up, they got married to beautiful people and they each had two children, making Mario and Maria joyous grandparents.
Mario and Maria and their family had very happy lives.
But as time passed, old age set in.
As Mario grew old, his body began to fail him. "You must sell your chocolate formula to a big company," one business adviser insisted. "Yes," said another. "A company that will mass produce what you make and sell it all over the world in their stores and on the Internet."
"But if I did that," Mario replied, "It would never have the magical ingredient, and it is this magical ingredient that makes my chocolate so special."
"Yes," the advisers answered. "But they'll pay you a lot of money. You'll be rich."
"It was never about the money," Mario replied. "It was about the magic. I'm rich in spirit, in family and in friends, as well as in chocolate."
Now bent over from old age, Mario still arrived each day to his pushcart to sell his chocolate that he continued to personally prepare. The line to buy that chocolate was longer than ever.
As Mario would sell his chocolate to all the people so very happy to be buying it, he would smile and stand a little taller lifted up by his happiness.
"Dad," his children would say, "You have to stop." "I'll never stop," he would reply with a chuckle and a sparkle in his eyes.
Then one day as the sun arose, the push cart sat empty and untouched.
Mario had passed away in his sleep that night.
When the word spread among the long line of people who were waiting for his pushcart to arrive, many of them teared up, and began to cry, for over the years Mario had become their friend.
Seeking an outlet for their grief, along with the family, they held a celebration of life party in Mario's honor. People laughed and shared stories and together, ate the last of Mario's chocolate, with the final piece set aside for Maria.
After the party, a group of Mario's customers and friends joined his children to go through his personal possessions hoping to find the answer to the ultimate secret, his magical ingredient.
Just as they were finishing up without success, Mario's daughter found a small scrap of pink paper, and on that paper was a simple handwritten note. It read:
"The magical ingredient that made my chocolate so special was love.
"I prepared my chocolate with love, presented it to my customers with love and I loved what I did. People could taste that love and feel it in their hearts. There's nothing more powerful than love and that's what made my chocolate so special."
Dick
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