Zoom 3: Zoom With a Vengeance (Frances, Eleanor, Delores)

It's been three weeks since we've started our virtual Best Days, and things seem to be getting into a rhythm. The bad news is, Norman's still waiting for his computer, so we won't be able to see his handsome face for a while. The good news is Frances' Zoom worked, so we got to see her face! The better news is that Ann shared a story about how both her daughter and her grandson were featured on WXPN's own Kids Corner. And if you're not from the Philadelphia area, then you should know that that's a pretty big deal, and that Kathy O'Connell is basically the God of children's programming. Perhaps there will be some cross promotion in the future?

Before we get into the stories, I'd like to wish everyone a belated Happy Mother's Day and Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Especially since this was founded after our fearless leader Benita had a heartfelt conversation with her grandmother in Hong Kong. And in these crazy times, it's more important than ever to support Asian run businesses and Asian run non-profits. You can donate, subscribe to our newsletter, send a note to our older buds, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If you want to volunteer yourself, then email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org. And if you know older buds with stories, then you or they can submit them through our portal right here.

And now, without further Die Hard references, please enjoy this week's stories:

Frances Bryce
05.16.19

Joy, Confused, Sad

           

The involvement in my daughter’s wedding was a period of happiness, that brought me great day. She met a young man at work and they became friends, he was from St. Louis and finally returned to his hometown after a couple of years. They kept in touch by phone, she related to me after he had been away that he was returning to Calif. They again begin to renew their time they had before he left Calif. which grew into an engagement and then planning to get married.

I accompanied her when she selected her flowers, wedding dress and the site for her wedding (on a boat) it was a small wedding with her intimate friend, and my best friend that all attended college which made the event even special, since she (my friend) was my daughter’s godmother.

A wonderful memories that still bring joy to my heart when I look at the picture, from her wedding and remember what fun it was for me to be involved in her marriage event. I have said if I could invent a son in law he would be my model.

This date they have a very loving relationship for more than eight years.

Eleanor Kazdan

03.05.2020

Why I'm Glad I Did Not Like to Be a Server In A Restaurant

I feel very lucky to this day that I did not like to be a server in a restaurant.  When I was 21 I got a job in Toronto at a Ontario Place, which is a big tourist attraction in Toronto.  And it was a seafood restaurant called Stoodley’s.  I had never been a server before, but I went out and bought the uniform – white bell bottom pants and a blue and red top, and I tried to be a good waitress, and I just did not like it.  I didn’t like having to be nice to people all the time and hoping to get good tips, and I did not get good tips.  Other young women did.  So after a couple of weeks I decided no, I do not like to be a waitress, and I went back to my old summer job working for the government of Ontario as a typist. 

And so after I’d been at that job for about two weeks a friend of mine, Elaine, also had a summer job right near where I was working in the center of Toronto.  And she said, “Let’s meet for lunch!” So I said, “Great.”  She was a summer student, a psychology student.

She said “Well my fellow psychology students and I meet at Womens College Hospital, we go to the hospital cafeteria and we have lunch there.  So I met her- met her twice actually, and the first time was not memorable.  There were a bunch of people there; I didn’t know them at all. But the second time, I was sitting beside a very cute guy.  And after a while he started asking me questions, and he was very interested in the fact that I was a musician, I played the piano, and I sang…he asked me a lot of questions; didn’t tell me much about himself. And I remember him leaving the group and I turned to Elaine and I said “He’s really cute!” 

So I went back to my job typing and towards the end of the day my friend Elaine called me on the phone she says “Guess what? That guy asked for your phone number!” So, oookay.  I was excited.  I left work and that night I was going to a concert.  My piano teacher had given me tickets to a free summer concert.  And so I was going by myself; walking down the street, kind of hanging out between work and the concert, and I happened to bump into the cute guy.  And I was feeling a little embarrassed knowing that he’d asked for my phone number.  So we talked for a little while, and he said “What are you doing tonight?”  And I said “Well, I’m going to a concert.”  So he said “Can I come?”  And I said “Okay!”  So that was our first date!  We met in front of the concert hall- I was very impressed that he showed up early, he wasn’t one of these people that was trying to make an impression by coming fashionably late. When I got there he was already sitting, waiting for me on a wall.  And that was our first date – July 25, 1971.  And we’ve been together ever since!  I was very lucky.

Delores Wilson
03.05.2020
I'm Alive

I want to share a story that actually happened to me in ’75, in the delivery room.  And what happened was that originally I was told that I was gonna have twins, but when it came time to deliver, they found out that the baby was breach. So ok, they’re going along with all this medical jargon, which- I understood what they were saying.  And the doctor said “We’re gonna have to turn him around.”  OK.  And as they’re doing what they’re doing, I hear some more medical terms and I discerned that complications had set in.  Either I’m going to have a hysterectomy, or I’m gonna die.  This is how serious it was. 

So what happened was, they turned the baby around- he was fine.  And the hospital that I went to, Germantown, they didn’t give you anything, they just gave you a spinal.  So I was awake, as I thought.  But in between the time before they transferred me to the gurney, I happened to look down and I saw red.  And I said to the doctor, I said, “I’m bleeding.”  They hadn’t noticed, and they looked, and she said “Yes she is!”  So they transferred me back on the table.  So in the meantime apparently I went out.  And what I saw was- I was going through a tunnel.  And I saw this blue light and this white light at the end of it, and there I saw Jesus.  And he said to me- he said “Go back.”  Because I said “I want to come!” He said “Go back.”  He showed me my son who I had not seen.  He never opened his mouth, but I understood what he was saying telegraphically.  And, I understood what he did.

Ok, so, in the meantime they had taken me to my room, and when I woke up I thought, this nurse who looked like one of the flying nuns, (that’s the kind of hat she had on) – I asked for water, she gave me water.  I asked for the bedpan, she gave me the bedpan.  And I went back to sleep, or so I thought.  So when I wok up again, for REAL for real, I looked- I saw I had an I.V. in my right arm and I had a coudé catheter.  So I looked around in the room and I noticed I was just the only one in the room, and two more beds.  So I discerned that I was in intensive care. 

So I’m still discombobulated because I feel fine, I’m thinking it’s something wrong with the baby.  So in the meantime at Germantown at that time they had the chart at the end of the bed so I scooted down and I read the chart.  When I read the chart, that was life changing for me.  It was life changing. 

What had happened…when I read the chart, I realized the baby was fine.  But it was me.  It changed the whole way that I thought about God. I was raised up in the church, I was baptized, and I wanted to return to the Lord.  It just changed my whole outlook on life.  And what happened- when the nurse came in, I asked her, “How was the baby?” She said “The baby was fine.”  But she had a look in her face, that- it isn’t the baby.  They never said “It was you”..

So, long story short – I rested that night- I went to get up, she said no, you stay in the bed.  She said just stay in the bed.  So I stayed in the bed, and that next day they took me to see the baby.  And from that point on what the Lord had said to me concerning that baby, he enabled me to follow through with it.  And I‘m thankful for that, because that was one of the most blessed days of my life.  I’m alive.

 

We're in the eye of the hurricane right now, and it's more important than ever to maintain contact with the older buds in your life. If you can't be there in person, please call them, email them, or message them on social media. And if they're using teleconferencing or remote events for the first time, give them a call and help them set things up. Check in on them to see how well they're getting used to these programs.

Curated by Caitlin Cieri