Letter from the Dutch Sisters

Now that I've settled myself back into my "at home life," my memories of the cruise are like the image to the right:  blurry, confused, shadowy with bright spots.

I'm beginning to make sense of that trip and store it in my memory as friends ask me:  "How was your trip?"  I say, "It was very successful."  "I worked very hard."  "I enjoyed the food and the movement of the ship."

But then, in the mail yesterday, there arrives a letter from the two sisters from Holland, two of my most faithful students and serious social bridge players, who jumped into the conundrum of duplicate bridge the last day at sea -- and came in third.

We shared several meals together on the Lido and became more than "Hello" friends.  I enjoyed watching their  food choices, mostly salads and lentils.  They were both tall and thin and moved easily about the ship, unlike many of the passengers.

The letter was left at the front desk of the Prinsendam the day we disembarked and was mailed to me by Holland America.  "Thanks again for your patience and kindness....Please come and visit me whenever you will be able to come to Holland."

She doesn't know that in the early 1960's, Shonshe, Gloria, and I spent three nights in the home of a kind Danish gentleman while he moved in with his intended.  The invitation had been issued innocently enough to Harriet on top of a mountain in Switzerland several years before.  Lee was doing an internship at a bank in Helsinki, and I planned the trip from Amsterdam, through Scandinavia and across to Helsinki  on an overnight ship.  I remembered the invitation, wrote the gentleman asking about hotels in Copenhagen -- and Poooofff!! there we were enjoying the amenities of his home and his services as tour guide for our stay in his beautiful city.

Life is full of such wonders, so don't be surprised if someday...