When I was asked to write a blog for an early July post, it made perfect sense to tie this article to our nation’s Independence Day, but I hesitated. For me, my siblings and parents, December 4th is equally as significant as Fourth of July – that’s when we celebrate freedom.
We don’t have fireworks, hot dogs or apple pie. We don’t tend to congregate in the same locale, because we are geographically dispersed throughout the US – and, it’s not a national holiday (which complicates things). But we celebrate it quietly. We reflect, in awe, at what my parents went through as political exiles entering a country they had honeymooned in, but were not intimate with– and one which they never dreamed of ever inhabiting permanently.
On the 4th of December, 1961 my parents left everything behind (as the saying goes), except for their children, the clothes on their backs, $15 US, their education, and hope. Continue reading “July 4th or December 4th?”
