A Memory and Love

I was in Thailand in January 2004 after the Tsunami had devastated most of the country. My trip was actually planned in advance, to help my daughter find an apartment and start school in Bangkok. She had been traveling along the coast before settling down for a year to study abroad. On December 25 she had called and was on an island off the coast, near Puket. For 48 hours we didn't know where she was.

Every January I reread my journal entries from that time and remember how traumatic the events were on a supremely gentle people and their country. And how deeply painful it was for me to call the American Consulate trying to find my daughter. I will never forget passing by the police station in Bangkok on my morning walk each day and seeing the postings of the thousands of names of the missing, growing and growing.

Today she can speak and read Thai. She stayed in Thailand in 2004 completing the program along with the requirement that she stay in a remote village with a family speaking only Thai and fully participating in their life. They are now her "grandparents" and she loves them.

I am so proud of her, and what she has done in her life.