KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

"Feel better?", MC said to me after showing me how to rub the Vaseline lotion on my hands and thru the fingers. We could not communicate much since my English was limited when we met one week after I started working at MK Company. MC just came back to work after a week of vacation in Florida. MC was responsible for rotating the displays of merchandise in the show room, working with photophers of various magazines to feature new items and selecting pieces of jewerly that would go well with certain outfits for the models at upcoming fashion shows.

After we met and MC saw how dried my hands were, during lunch MC went out to purchase a bottle of hand lotion to give to me. That was the beginning of our friendship. I will always remember the little things MC did to help me. Instead of eating in her comfortable office, MC would bring her lunch to the breakroom. While we ate, MC would talk to me and encouraged me to share with her what I learned from English classes. She corrected my pronunciation, grammar and taught me American expressions. During the summer months, when we walked around the blocks at lunch time, MC would teach me about New York City, about America and about being a young woman (I was 19 years old). I laughed so hard the first time MC asked me whether I had been kissed by a boy and if I liked it. Perhaps because the subject of kissing was such a taboo in conversations in the Asian culture, I laughed to avoid giving MC an answer. As I became aware of my maturity as a young woman, I asked MC many questions that I would not dare to ask my own mother. These questions probably would make mother very uncomfortable and I had no business discussing the topics until I got married anyway.

MC became a good friend and later my godmother. MC gave me new clothing (with the price tags tore off) and never expected anything in returns. We continued to keep in touch by phone after I left MK Company. During my breaks from school, I would visit MC and her husband, JC at their home on the weekend. They would take me to real nice restaurants for dinners and a few day trips. When we encountered acquantainces, MC introduced me as such, "This is our daughter".

MC provided words of encouragement during my years of working full time and seeking a college education. We remained good friends when I moved to Michigan. MC visited me when JC came to St. Louis to attend a convention for World War II veterans. We have continued to keep in touch regularly by letters, phone calls and now by email.

It was MC who listened for hours when I went through the painful struggle with my marriage in 2005. MC listened without judging or questioning my plan for a separation. MC continued to encourage me to be more assertive at my current workplace by listing my name and title in the Association's newsletter. "Why should anyone receive credits for your hard work?" MC commented after I sent her copy of the newsletter.

I felt so blessed to have such wonderful friends like MC and her husband. The kindness they extended to me and my family over the last 27 years has lessen some of the difficulties on my journey being a refugee in the new land. Very often in life, kindness of strangers is the thing we most likely depend on. Thanks, MC for all your support and encouragement.