| Combwork |
08-26-2009 06:20 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by merrylander
(Post 2832)
I was in my first marriage contemplating suicide.
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I'm glad you thought better of it; that's not a cheap shot. In 1969 I was 20 and just met a Chinese nurse in England. I felt more for that girl than I have for anyone, before or since. Introduced her to my folks, they saw how we were together and made no objection to us getting married. Su wrote about me to her sister back home, her brother read the letter, told their mother and it all went to fuck. Mother threw a fit, Su had to go back to Kuala Lumpur. I followed a year later to try to straighten things out. Spent three months driving a truck for the Red Cross in the floods while waiting for a respected family friend to come back to KL so he could formally introduce me to her family, but before he came, a friend of Su's mother saw us walking together. Without knowing it (young and ignorant) although all we were doing was walking together I'd broken every cultural rule in the book. Su's mother threw a real fit this time so to bring any kind of sanity into it, officially I had to leave and Su was to follow as soon as she could. Unofficially, I tried every way I could to stay in the area so I'd be in with a chance once things had quietened down and this 'respected family friend' showed up. Tried to get work as a full time Red Cross driver but no joy. Went to the U.S. embassy to see if it would be possible to drive full time for the Red Cross in Vietnam (it would kept me in that part of the world; in range of KL) but no chance. Went to the British embassy to sign any papers needed for Su to get a visa, then I had to go back to the U.K.
Basically with my big ol' English boots I'd turned a difficult situation into a complete fuckup. Wrote back and forth a good few times, then came the inevitable 'Dear John' letter. Su had found (or her family had found for her) a suitable partner. Don't know why, but a couple of months ago she was back in my head. I'm trying in a low key way to find out how things worked out for her. Has to be low key; if things are going well the last thing the girl needs is me back in her life. "Girl's" maybe the wrong word; she was three years older than me and I turned 60 in June.
1969. Interesting year............
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