Once upon a time, after I had served as a missionary in the U.S., the Virgin Islands and Mexico, I flew from my home in California to a conference where I would interview participants from all over the world. Our first morning in Washington, D.C., we introduced ourselves around the conference room table. I was…
Dad, I Still Need to Know You: Can I Tell the Tree by its Fruit?
Dad, you are two-dimensional — a cardboard figure in my mind. For too many years I have wondered why I did not feel close to you. Desperately, I write to know you loved me. Dad and me at two years old in a Maryland snow With thin scraps of memories, I collage a quiet, respectable…
A 20th Century Gentlewoman
In our small, bright yellow kitchen, you stirred your signature onion, chili powder, ground beef, tomato, kidney bean and macaroni dish on the stove. The delicious aroma wafted my way as I perched on the washing machine a few feet away, dangling my teenaged legs and talking with you. Every day, you and I were…
Once an Alien, One May Wonder —Always an Alien?
Have you ever seen an alien? If you saw me a few years ago, you have; I was a registered, certified alien. There may be reason to doubt, but, no, not the extra-terrestrial kind. As a single American for four years in Mexico, and as a wife, then mother, for 28 years in the Philippines,…
