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| Boss B. and his fiance Miss P. |
A few months after I arrived in Indonesia, our shy, quiet Boss Man shocked us all by announcing that he was to have a visitor -- a fiance, no less! She was going to do what I probably should have done -- check the place out, to see what she was getting herself into.
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| Boss Man B. |
Not long after she arrived, we had them over to dinner, and the more I visited with her, the more I felt I had found a kindred spirit. P. was quite different from most of the other wives I'd met so far. She had a graduate degree in library science, and had landed a job as head librarian at a brand new school that had still been under construction when they hired her. She talked about what a thrill it had been to be there from start to finish, and how hard it would be to walk away from "her" library. She was smart and independent, with her own apartment and a promising career, but she also enjoyed domestic pursuits like decorating and quilting - a rare combination in those days. She told me she never felt settled in a new place until she'd hung her "stuff" on the walls. Only then did it feel like home. I thought of that each and every time we had to move over the next three decades.
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| Miss P. |
Little did we know that, some 35 years later, Miss P. would pick up an Austin newspaper by chance, and see a photo in the travel section that happened to be of a place in Thailand -- a place that they themselves had visited. There was a story attached to the photo, written by someone who called herself "Hill Country Hippie", and who wrote a blog called Seasonality, where Miss P. decided to leave a comment...
Posts
4 comments:
Via Facebook:
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Priscilla Lane: The world is so much smaller than we think! After all, you bought a house from someone my parents know. So I assume you and Miss P have had a reunion?
6 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
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Becky Thomas Lane: Yes, we did indeed. In fact, they recently bought a house in Fredericksburg, though they have one in Houston too. They also told us that there is an annual reunion in Houston, for all those who were in that overseas division of B&R, so we went to one and got to visit with several other people we had known then.
Via Facebook:
Pat Weirich: You are so kind, but I think you are remembering through rose tinted glasses. I just remember being so impressed with a lady who could produce a spaghetti dinner party in a motel room on a hot plate. It is really fun reliving those days through your excellent descriptions.
From Paula, via email:
OK, I cannot wait to see if you and Miss P connected. Her picture looked like someone I would have enjoyed knowing. Being a librarian, she must love books like we do, and she just looked fun.
Pat, I'm not exaggerating - you WERE a role model to me. Most of the other women I'd met up to that point were happy to walk away from their jobs and let a man take care of them. You were the first person I met who would have understood why I felt torn about abandoning my "master plan."
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