Pen-Pals

People often ask me, "Where did you meet your husband?"

It is a long story, in a way.
Remember, when I was trying to decide where I should go for my post-graduate work after HKU?
Remember, my then school-mate Dum the matchmaker, telling her older brother, S.C., who was in Houston, TX, that he should contact me? (Read The Young Prof. from Wales, if you haven't already.)

He did.

When I was in Edinburgh, I wrote him a letter thanking him for sending me info on Rice University. We started corresponding every now and then, at that time. We were "some-time" pen-pals.

Dum and I lived in the same Hall - Lady HoTung Hall, at HKU. We were friends. A group of us ran around together for several years.
Dum's family lived in the New Territories, some distance out of the city. It would take me nearly an hour, sometimes, driving to her home. And I don't think it was really that far out. However, once you got out of the city, at some point, you went through these winding and super narrow two lane mountain roads. On one side, it was rocky mountains with occasional Falling Rocks, and the other side sheer Cliffs. Below the cliffs, ocean! It always scared me to death if there was a big car or truck coming towards me - you had to be Very careful! I would not go over thirty-five or so miles an hour. Sometimes, twenty or twenty-five!
When I was in southern Ireland a few years ago, some friends and I drove through the coastal mountains there. It reminded me of New Territorials. In HK, we drive on the left side of the road, too. 

Oh, those winding narrow two lanes! HONK when you come to some hairpin-bends!

Dum's folks had two houses on some ten acres. Her folks were very hospitable. Oftentimes, Dum would asked a group of us girls to spend weekends at her home. We city girls thought that was a real treat and we gladly accepted the invitations. Dum's father had gardens for flowers and vegetables. They were novelties for us. The air was cleaner and we had more room to roam. We did that for years. So, I really knew the family.

My father-in-law, Mr. I.S. Wan, Esq., was a retired educator. He loved gardening. He loved dogs. He loved people.
My mother-in-law, was the sweetest lady, without a mean bone in her body..
I often wondered if I married S.C. for his folks?

S.C. was working in Houston, TX., as a research scientist. 
He had come to the U.S. during WWII as an interpreter for the U.S. Army and the Chinese government, helping train Chinese pilots. 
While he was in the U.S., the war ended. He was given the opportunity to stay and go to school, or go home. He took the opportunity to stay and went to University of Texas in Austin, TX.

So, we wrote to each other for a while. By the way, he was a good letter writer. For those of you who knew him later you might doubt my words. He was slow in speaking. Always very deliberate in choosing his words. You see, he was the ultimate perfectionist. 
He spoke English without any foreign accents (and I do) - well, he was born and bred in HK, British Crown Colony. His grandfather went to HK before 1911. His grandfather, Dr. Wan (I will explain the family name later.), a medical doctor, was classmate and friend of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Father of the Republic of China. Dr. Sun was a revoluntionist at that time. Grandfather Wan fled to HK to avoid being captured by the Ch'iang Dynasty, for being associated with Dr. Sun Yat-sen. He was one of the first few Chinese medical doctors practicing in HK in early 20th century. S.C.'s father was the oldest son. 
I will tell you more about the family later.

Anyway, S.C. and I wrote to each other for a while. Then, when I went to London, I did not write him much. Boy, he got upset. Later, I found a letter his father had written him, pacifying him . . .
I did not realize that he was in love with me. (or with my letters?)
He wrote again. I wrote him back. So we were pen-pals, while I was in London and he was in Houston, TX.

The next year, I took a long way back home to HK - Via the U.S. - via Houston, Tx.

Long story short - he went back to UT, got his Master's Degree, and went back to HK. We got married.

                                                              me                   S.C.

                                                                  with my parents

                                                                 with S.C.'s parents