Late one fall afternoon at Graceland in 1964, Elvis and I were sitting in the living room. Vernon came in and told Elvis about a boy and his mother who had just arrived from Sweden. The young man’s recently deceased grandfather had left him 500,000 dollars, plus two hotels and a jewelry store, and he wanted to give it all to Elvis! “Wait a minute. I don’t want his money or anything else, Dad; it wouldn’t be right for me to take it.” “I think you’d better see them, son. I just don’t know what to say to them. The mother is frantic. She says her son is threatening to commit suicide unless you accept his gift. Elvis shook his head in disbelief. “Are they really serious, Dad? All right, all right, I’ll go and see them. But I’m going to tell him the truth, that I don’t want anything from him.”
The next day, Vernon brought the thin, blond 16-year-old boy and his mother to Graceland. The boy gulped when he saw Elvis; his eyes gave off sparks. His voice failed him when he told Elvis how much Elvis had done for him, and now he had to do something for Elvis. He knew all the lyrics to Elvis’ songs by heart and had made his room in Stockholm a shrine full of Elvis memorabilia. His mother showed Elvis a photo of his room. “Look, Elvis, he lives for you. Please, you must accept his gift; he says he can’t live if you don’t. Holding back tears, her voice almost inaudible, she revealed that his older brother committed suicide a year ago and he’s all he has left.” Elvis looked at his father and me for a minute. “Let me talk to him alone.”
Elvis took the boy to the music room. About fifteen minutes later they emerged, both beaming. “It’s all right, he understands how I feel. He gave me this gold ring (with a diamond horseshoe inside) and that’s how we’re going to leave it for now. Ma’am, I told your son that I wanted him to keep in touch with me and let me know how he’s doing. Elvis put his arm around the boy’s shoulders. “We’re friends now.”
When they left, I asked Elvis what had happened. He smiled: “I couldn’t let that kid beat me, right in my backyard. I told him that the best way to please me would be to go back to Sweden to look after his mother and spend that money on getting an education and helping other people. I told him that I had more money than I could spend and that his gift would only cause me problems.”