Kenneth
Ann Arbor, Michigan
November 23, 2006 (Thanksgiving Day)Three days before Thanksgiving, 2004, my daughter, Becky, left her home in Ann Arbor unexpectedly and drove alone to Austin, Texas. She was 4 days away from her eighteenth birthday, a senior in high school and she was extremely unhappy. Becky had become very distraught due to many tragic events in her life and decided to leave without telling anyone. In the months prior to her departure her mother and I had divorced, a 5 year old dear friend and neighbor had died suddenly of meningitis, and a boy friend had ended their relationship.
Becky was unreachable for many weeks so I was very stressed about her well being and her living conditions. She was trying to forget the past by making a clean break. Fortunately, she was able to find an acquaintance who offered her a room in his apartment. After several days in Austin she enrolled herself in a local high school and resumed her senior year. Within a month she had been hired part time at a local Joe’s Crab Shack. Becky was moving forward with her life.
The only way for me to reconnect with her was to offer my unconditional love and support. I did this through frequent phone calls and eventually I sent her a card. In the card I included these lyrics from “Harbor”: “sail your sea, meet your storm, all I want is to be your harbor, the light in me will guide you home, all I want is to be your harbor”. The day Becky received the card she tearfully called me, her voice filled with emotion, she told me she loved me and asked me to visit her. That card with those perfect lyrics, brought us back together. Within weeks we were reunited in an Austin restaurant, where this photo was taken. Since then we have grown very close, she calls me her best friend.
After working in 2 restaurants and at Whole Foods in Austin, Becky is now a freshman, studying Hospitality Business at Michigan State University. She is very happy.
Thank you, Vienna Teng.