Reliable Plating Works and Advanced Plating Technologies are about 9 miles apart in the city of Milwaukee, which — in other cities across the U.S. — would be comparable to the Korean Demilitarized Zone regarding friendships amongst finishers.
They don’t often bid on the same finishing projects, and certainly, there have been times when they have competed for the same workforce. Both have deep roots in the community, with RPW being founded by Jaime’s family in 1929 and younger APT getting its roots in 1948 by the John’s clan.
Finishing operations are not known to be friendly amongst their local peers, and there are many cases where shops downright despise one another. Things can get ugly, fingers get pointed, and there is no love loss in a small, niche finishing industry.
Then, there are Jaime Maliszewski and John Lindstedt, patriarchs of the two entities. This story is about a friendship that has lasted decades and how a recent health issue brought them even closer together.
A Friendship Bonded by Tragedies
Jaime MaliszewskiJaime’s Reliable Plating Works and Elite Finishing have been friends with John’s Advanced Plating Technologies over the past five decades, so much so that several years ago, the two companies joined with a third, ChromeTech of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, to form a consortium to work together on reducing purchasing costs through volume buys for all four shops, as well as worker’s compensation plans and other cost-reducing opportunities.
In 1996, the two shops — and Jaime and John — became even closer when, in October of that year, a fire destroyed much of APT — then known as Artistic Plating Company. A lightning strike from a freak October thunderstorm hit the APT facility and destroyed the job shop that was bustling with over 65 employees.
John LindstedtHere was John — straight out of Hollywood’s Central Casting as an ex-U.S. Naval officer who served during the Cold War in nuclear submarines — who had always been cool and calm under pressure, whether it was his military service or running the company after taking over for his father, staring the next morning at nothing but the smoldering remains of what was once his business.
“I saw 25 years of my life in ashes, and I no longer had control of any of it,” he said back then.
Jaime heard about the fire from the radio on his way to work at 5 a.m. He made his way through the barricades as they were still working to put out the fire and asked John, “How can I help?”
“One seldom finds helping friends like that,” John says of Jaime.
He immediately began calling on his local friends in the industry. John called Milwaukee Plating Company, run by owner Al Matticotti, which happened to be just across 4th Street from APT.
“That Could Have Been Us”
Jaime Maliszewski's Reliable Plating Works and Elite Plating specializes in decorative nickel/chrome plating, electroless nickel, copper, polishing and buffing, and vibratory finishes.After Milwaukee Plating finished their work during the day, a night crew from John’s APT would rack parts and run them in Matticotti’s shop. However, Jaime’s RPW also gave huge support to John’s company.
“They were there as soon as they heard,” John says. “Whatever I needed—equipment, drums, any supplies—I just called Jaime, and he would find it for us. Their help enabled us to get back to producing a lot faster.”
Jaime’s shop had just purchased a prototype line from an auction and gave it to John so that he could set up a very critical gold plating process. After the 1.5-year rebuilding process, John asked Jaime where to return the prototype line, and he was told to please just keep the line.
“One seldom finds helping friends like that,” John says.
There was never any question in Jaime’s mind that he would step up for APT.
“That could have been us,” he says. “And that’s what you do for others.”
Raised to Serve Others
John Lindstedt's company has won numerous awards, including the U.S. EPA Environmental Achievement Award, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District High Honor Roll, and the John C. Brogan Award for Outstanding Environmental Achievement from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.It was a lesson he learned from his parents, John and Betty Maliszewski, who were tremendous philanthropists of both their time and money to just causes in their city. So much so that St. Joseph Academy — an Early Childcare Center and K-8th grade school on Milwaukee’s southside — opened the John and Betty Maliszewski Family Health Clinic in appreciation of their years of financial assistance and time volunteering.
But no matter how giving and philanthropic a person can be, nothing prepares them for their own immortality and physical well-being, which is something that Jaime came to face recently and also something that he relied on a very close friend to help him get through it.
Jaime is an imposing figure, a hulking 6’2” former football player who played college football as a safety turned outside linebacker, with his bruising play and grit. He has remained close to his college playing weight and now gets his athletic thrills as an accomplished golfer and outdoorsman.
But a few years ago, Jaime noticed his back pain getting worse and began losing feeling and getting nerve pain in his lower legs. Now 60, he says he often fought through the pain and chalked it up to an aging body and his years of football and other sports.
A Serious Medical Concern
When the pain and weakness became worse, he finally addressed it with his doctors, who unfortunately found something alarming in his medical evaluation: a tumor resided in the spinal column that they originally told him was cancerous. To receive such a diagnosis is frightening, and it hit Jaime harder than any contact received while playing college football.
His doctors told him risky surgery was needed to remove the tumor and offer him little hope of being able to continue walking. With the tumor inside the spine and pressing on the nerve fibers, there was a substantial risk of further damaging the nerves and causing additional loss of bodily functions in addition to the mobility concern.
“I was scared,” Jaime says. “Hearing that kind of news sets you back a few steps. I thought that this meant I only had months to live, as spinal cancer usually only means months. My wife and I started to make sure everything was in order in case this was it. Your head spins, and you feel the world's weight on your shoulders. It hit me pretty hard.”
“I called Jaime and told him my daughter’s fiancé was going to be part of the surgery team, and I could hear his relief,” John says. “But the risk was still there.”
Doctors wanted to schedule surgery right away to remove the tumor, a procedure that would take over eight hours and would require detailed precision for the surgeons who were working to remove the tumor without causing further damage.
The realization of the risks involved caused Jaime to pause and think through the procedure even more carefully; he also remembered that John’s daughter was a neurosurgery nurse at the hospital where Jaime’s surgery was to take place, and he wanted to check references on the doctors that were going to cut him open and take on this delicate procedure.
A Friend Calls in a Favor
Reliable Plating Works and Elite Finishing in Milwaukee offer plating classes for their customers every Friday in February. When he called John to ask his daughter about the doctors — “I just wanted some reassurances for my peace of mind,” Jaime says — he was surprised to learn that John’s daughter was engaged to wed the head of the neurosurgical department performing his surgery.
“I told Jaime I would check with my daughter and my future son-in-law on the team that was scheduled to do his surgery,” John recalled. “I could hear the fear and concern in Jaime’s voice, and you could tell he was apprehensive, which anybody would be if they were facing what Jaime was facing.”
After John spoke with his daughter and her fiancé, he called Jaime back with some crucial information: the surgical team received an excellent report, and his future son-in-law — the head of the neurosurgical department at the hospital — would personally assist in the surgery.
Whether it was the favor to his future father-in-law or the stern look that John can often deliver to someone when he means business, Jaime was getting the best doctors and surgical team in the Milwaukee area to work on his high-risk operation.
“What the hell are you doing here,” a startled Jaime asked him. “I’m here to see you,” John replied casually.
“I called Jaime and told him my daughter’s fiancé was going to be part of the surgery team, and I could hear his relief,” John says. “But the risk was still there.”
An Exhaustive Surgery and a Long Recovery
Jaime Maliszewski's doctors told him risky surgery was needed to remove the tumor. The surgery took the full eight hours for the doctors to remove the tumor. They removed all of it, but there was still damage to Jaime’s spinal cord. He was paralyzed from the waist down, causing him to need a wheelchair, but still had some movement.
The surgery also took place when many COVID-19 protocols were still in place, which meant that only a patient’s immediate family could visit them in the strictest protocols possible. No one got through to patients' rooms unless they were blood relatives, and even then, there were heavy restrictions and numerous safety precautions with personal protection gear.
So when John found out he couldn’t go to the hospital to visit his friends just days after surgery, he wasn’t having any of it. Jaime’s family told him he wouldn’t be allowed in per the hospital rules, but that didn’t stop John from trying.
John contacted a former naval friend who was managing the hospital’s facilities.
“I told him I needed to see Jaime, and he told me it was out of the question,” he says. “I assured my naval friend that I would adhere to all COVID rules, masking, distancing, etc., but saw no reason that just because I was not a blood relative, I could not see my close friend, if even for a few minutes.”
Pride runs deep in the submarine force, and the contact agreed to meet him at the hospital's back door and guide John through the maze of hospital corridors to Jaime’s room. The ordeal was something out of CIA-based spy movies; John was given a hospital lab coat and some badges to wear and was taken to Jaime’s floor, where he coyly avoided detection until he arrived at his friend’s hospital door.
“What the hell are you doing here,” a startled Jaime asked him.
“I’m here to see you,” John replied casually, as if on a Sunday walk. He could tell from Jaime’s expression that the visit — be it only five minutes — was most appreciated and important to him.
It was something that friends do for friends, whether helping them out when a fire burns their facility down to nothing but ashes or providing encouragement when needed.
Working His Way Back to the Shop Floor
After several months out of his company, Jaime Maliszewski returned to work and worked to regain the muscle memory in his legs to help him walk. The operation left Jaime ambulatory for weeks and a long road ahead of physical therapy and often painful rehabilitation.
“In my very first rehab session, I told the physical therapist that my go-to emotion when dealing with a severe issue is anger, and I focus that anger on the problem at hand,” Jaime says. “I assured her it was not at her and that she shouldn’t be offended. And that first day, I was cussing up a storm during my rehab, trying to will my legs to move. I have a high pain tolerance, but this was about as painful as it could get, and it took all my energy just to get my foot to move a few inches.”
“There were days you just didn’t know how this would turn out,” Jaime says. “But damned if I wasn’t going to keep trying.”
Jaime’s wife, Julie, gave him a book to read called “Green Bananas” about Patrick Rummerfield, who was injured in a car accident when he was 21 and was told he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. Not only did he survive a catastrophic car crash, but he also made it through 17 years of intense rehab to eventually become a tri-athlete and ran endurance races. He even set land speed records in race cars.
For Jaime, he figured if Rummerfield could do that much, he could at least return to his former shape. The days in physical therapy were often tortuous and painful. He took a step one day and another the next. Eventually, he pulled himself along with the help of support bars and took more than a few steps, but he also knew the work would be long and hard.
“There were days you just didn’t know how this would turn out,” Jaime says. “But damned if I wasn’t going to keep trying.”
Back in the Saddle Once Again
He also finally received the news that the tumor was not cancer, which further lit the fire to get all his abilities back.
After several months out of his company, Jaime returned to work and worked to regain the muscle memory in his legs to help him walk. Some days were harder than others as he walked the floor at Reliable Plating Works and Elite Plating. He stumbled and fell a few times but would stand back up straight.
He also gave a mandate to his team at both shops: don’t you dare help me.
John Lindstedt has turned his company over to be run by his sons, Matt at left, and James.“I told them all to just let me do this my way,” Jaime says. “I didn’t want help because I had to do what I was doing before to train my muscles and my body what it needed to do to walk again. People wanted to help me, but this was on me.”
The limp and unsteadiness are still noticeable these days as Jaime walks the spacious shop floors at both shops, but he is walking on his own and talking up a storm, just like before. Based on what could have been, he says he feels lucky by what happened to him. He’ll take that any day of the week.
“It’s just something that happened to me,” Jaime says. “You deal with it.”
But he knows that part of what got him through the pain was knowing he had a great support team at his shops and friends who stepped up and made the call, came to visit, or repaid the favor.
When John was down on his luck, Jaime was there, among others, to help. Likewise, when Jaime needed a helping hand, John did what he could.
“I’d do that for any of my friends,” John says. “You have got to admire a man who is so tough and determined to regain his health. I think that small clandestine trip into the hospital helped just a small bit.”
Visit https://rpwinc.net and https://advancedplatingtech.com
