Thanksgiving

Grant County Journal
November 22, 2010
By Janet Warren
Journal columnist

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Rotary meeting as a guest. Mike wasn’t sure who the speaker would be, but the topic turned out to be a very fitting subject for my Thanksgiving column.
Emily Wu, who now lives in Moses Lake, is the author of the book “Feather in the Storm.” It is a memoir about her 19 years of experience growing up in the chaos of China’s Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. After I heard her speak at Rotary, I googled her and read some reviews on her book. Many people were asking what happened to Emily Wu and her family. On the dust jacket of the book, her author’s bio states that she lives with her two children in Cupertino, California. But we know the rest of the story. She now lives in Moses Lake and she told us that her parents and brothers got out of China and are now in the United States. They all survived the Chaos, which is a miracle given her story.
Let me share with you a couple of stories Emily told the Rotarians. She met her father for the first time on her third birthday. He was sent to prison before she was born for no apparent reason other than he taught English literature in Beijing. Many professors were arrested and killed during the Revolution. Emily said her family was considered wealthy which meant “that we had two pair of pants instead of the one that most others had.” At one point both of her parents were in prison, so Emily and her brother were sent to a place where other displaced children were kept until their parents were released. One of the moving stories Emily told us was about the time her brother defecated at night, so the caretakers determined he could no longer eat dinner. As her brother was crying for food, Emily put a small dab of toothpaste on her finger and asked him to shut his eyes. Then she told him she had some candy for him. Her brother was so trusting that he believed her as he licked her finger. These gentle acts of kindness amid so much evil and terror are what make Emily Wu’s story so compelling. Emily looked out at all of us in the audience and told us that the lunch we had just eaten would have been a feast for days for her when she was a child. When her own children would complain that “there was nothing good to eat,” Emily had to shake her head as she remembered her days of starvation when she was their age.
Rotary has a ritual they hold at the beginning of every meeting. They pass a jar around and everyone puts in a “buck” for each thing they share that they are thankful for. Not only does this raise money for the group, it also gets the members realizing how much they have to be grateful for. I decided I would share with you some of the things I am thankful for. Here’s five bucks worth, in no particular order:
1. I am grateful for parents who taught me. My mother taught me to lose myself by serving other people. My father taught me to love my country, to be honest, and to cherish integrity, above all else.

2. I am grateful I have the opportunity to write this column. It has given me the chance to get to know people I normally would not even meet. To many people’s surprise, I am reserved and it is not in my nature to sit down next to strangers at a football game and start asking them questions. Jeff Fletcher, publisher of the Grant County Journal, took me out of the stalker category and gave me legitimacy to learn about the people of Ephrata. He only asked one thing: That this column be about my experiences and not about my husband’s job. I promised him I would do my best, but that Mike is a big part of my life and I would sometimes share with the community things about him, not as the Police Chief, but as my husband.


3. I am grateful for my husband. He embodies everything my mother and father taught me, plus more. He is, by far, the most wonderful man I have ever had the privilege of knowing. However; we have only been married for four years, so that could change. Another thing my mother taught me…always keep ‘em on their toes.

4. I am grateful for the privilege of being a mother and a grandmother. I learned patience, tolerance, and not to worry about the small things when raising my children. I tried to let my children learn from their own mistakes even when it tore me up to be on the sidelines. From my grandchildren I learned that they are so much more fun than their parents ever were.


5. Last, but certainly not least, I am grateful for my faith. I have lived by the same set of standards since I was nine years old and have learned I must constantly work at doing what I know is right. I am so grateful to live in a country where I can practice my religion with no fear of retribution from the government. It is no coincidence I am here in Ephrata because I have been led by the hand of God. As a great man once said, “If life gets too hard to stand, kneel.” I kneel a lot.
As you are sitting around the table on Thanksgiving Day, before you dig into Aunt Sara’s sausage pear stuffing, go around the table and have everyone throw a couple of bucks into the jar. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.