Footstep

First, let me tell you a slightly irrelevant story:

Some thirty years ago while travelling around for his work, a Chinese man had to stay in Vancouver for a few days. He remembered that the younger sister of his father emigrated to this city for 15 or 20 years, and, naturally, he decided to pay a visit to this auntie.

His English was not very good, and the address was somewhere in the suburb. After a bit of hazel, he worked out the route and took a bus.

However, when he arrived in the afternoon, he found that the family had moved.

That was the time before mobile phone, and, I must say if it were me, I would call it a day and surrender.

But this man did not. He found a young Chinese girl who happened to pass by and asked if she could show him where the local post office was.

The girl was a university student and luckily could speak both Cantonese and English. She actually brought the man to the post office. In there, the man asked for the whereabouts of his auntie. (And only from this story I know it used to be a custom for them to leave the new address to the local post office so that letters could be forwarded to the appropriate place.)

And, bingo! He got the new address (somewhere a few miles away), and learned the bus route that would bring him to the destination.

Later in the evening, he arrived – safe and intact, and was heartily greeted by his auntie.

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Yes, you guess that much. The man was my father; and the other reason that I came to Vancouver was to visit this grand auntie who I never met before.

Time changed, but I am sure she greeted me as heartily as she did thirty years ago.