Met Nancy whom I've not met in 11 years from Cardiff and she still remembered me! It was such a good feeling catching up over happenings in our lives. I was surprised to hear that she lost her husband to cancer and brought up an autistic kid on her own. How she gave up her job as a HR consultant with AON Hewitt to accompany her husband for treatment and radiation. Her reliance on god to grant her a child kept her going for the past years, overcoming tears and fears. Kid was diagnosed to be slightly autistic and she spent hours to understand his development and train him daily to overcome his condition...which is totally not apparent now. Because she was so good at it she even had time to volunteer and help families with similar needs. According to her, coaching parents into accepting that their kid is special is the toughest part of the job, as the father figure tends not to be around and mother lacks family support to persevere in the mundanely routine trainings and on top of that having to deal with the temperaments of the child at the same time.
In fact it makes me feel that having 3 kids and my apprehensions associated with taking on a larger regional role just seems like nothing when compared to her experience.The short few hours spent with her was so amazing that it felt like time came to a standstill and we are back to the days where we were mugging papers. Though i wasnt close to the PRC community then . They treated me like one of their own and shared exam questions etc. They were able to create a system out of the muddled and though they struggled with english as their 3rd language. The support was strong within the community and everyone worked hard! I am glad they see me as one of them and continued to keep in touch.
It was such a good feeling. I never knew i needed friends this much. And that i could learn so much from this experience. The connection is still there despite years had past. We are still who we are in spite of age. Or have we all changed in some ways?
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