A Great Story

The other day, I received an email from a lady who stayed at J-Hoppers Hiroshima last month.

Her name is Jan from Canada and she brought a great story when she was staying here.


She was traveling with her son at that time. I used to live in Canada, so I was enjoying talking to her about the country when they arrived. A while later, she asked me to be of help to find a family in Hiroshima city.

Her friend, Donna had a homestay when she was a high school student. After she get back to Canada she tried to send some letters to her hostfamily, but the letters got returned to her and she has never made it to reach them. Since she knew Jan has a trip to Hiroshima, she asked her to find the family and to pass her letter to the family as well.

But it has been 34 years.
It was very difficult to find them. But I gave it a try with the few informations Jan brought... and I finally I made it to find them!!!

I found the host mother. She seemed so happy to hear the story but she said she couldn't come to pick the letter up, because she is pretty old now and she can't walk good anymore.

So Jan, her son and I decided to bring the letter to her.

We went to her place the next evening.
The host mother was such a sweet person. She showed us with lots of pictures and told us all the stories about Donna and the family from 34 years ago. I was surprised she has such a great memory, and it meant how close dona and the family were.

The host mother seemed so happy and i enjoyed listening all her stories even I don't know dona. It was a great night.


Jan emailed me some pictures of her subsequent visit to Donna where she told her everything and gave her the gifts. She told me that Donna was in tears and as happy as her mother had been to have news at last, and I also heard she is now working very hard on her Japanese to get in touch with her again.


It was a touching moment of the two paths crossed after the long 34 years.

I am very grateful to be a part of this great story.

Such a wonderful job I have!

Comments

pascal said…
That's great story ! You've been so kind ... :-)
And it looks like a Tantei Night Scoop ;-)))
Also, it reminds me an american women who I've helped when I was working at J-Hoppers Hiroshima. She was looking for a hospital in Kure-shi area. I confess I don't remember precisely what was her story but it was linked to her father who was military and was on duty in Kure area after the second world war.
And now it reminds me another a japanese man who live in Tokyo and was a regular correspondent of my grand father (he worked and spent lot of time all over Asia). After my grand father passed away, one of my uncle keep on sending some letters to give news of our family but never got reply.
Maybe one day it will be my turn to have a trip to Tokyo and look for some very old memories...
masa said…
Haha, that's funny that you thought it's like a Tantei Night Scoop. If I asked them to find the family, it should have made this story more touching and also funnier too!:P

Anyways, wow, you also have some good stories. These happy happenings always make me realize how important every single meeting is...
Life is great! :)

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