RSteve
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- Feb 9, 2008
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When I was 20-years-old at the University of Minnesota, I regularly studied at a 24/7 library which had been set up for medical students, but not restricted to them. For several months, from fall, 1966 to early spring, I sat at the same table/same chair. Directly across from me, 99% of the time, was a female M.D. from South Korea, who was at the U. of MN Medical School doing an advanced residency in thoracic surgery. She was eight years older than me.
What began as ducking across the street together to the U.Hospital canteen for a late night snack evolved into a serious relationship.
The relationship very likely would never have occurred, had she not had the mistaken notion about my sexuality. She mistakenly thought I was gay. I always dressed fashionably and had a full head of wavy auburn hair, worn almost to my shoulders.
We became very close and ultimately became intimate. I, literally, begged her to marry me and stay in the U.S. She said that was impossible. She was promised to the son of a friend of her family. He had been patiently waiting to marry her for 10 years. Not to marry him, would disgrace her family for generations.
She gave me the date she'd be leaving Mpls and I gave her my married sister's mailing address, in the event she wanted to contact me. One week earlier, to the day that she said she'd be leaving, she was gone. No tearful good-byes. Nothing. About a year and a half later, my sister informed me that I had a mailing from South Korea. No legitimate return address. Inside the envelope, a photograph of her holding a baby. On the back was written, "I wish he were ours." Not signed.
If she's still alive, she's 84, but in my mind's eye and as an occasional visitor in my dreams, she'll always be 28. Last night she visited.
What began as ducking across the street together to the U.Hospital canteen for a late night snack evolved into a serious relationship.
The relationship very likely would never have occurred, had she not had the mistaken notion about my sexuality. She mistakenly thought I was gay. I always dressed fashionably and had a full head of wavy auburn hair, worn almost to my shoulders.
We became very close and ultimately became intimate. I, literally, begged her to marry me and stay in the U.S. She said that was impossible. She was promised to the son of a friend of her family. He had been patiently waiting to marry her for 10 years. Not to marry him, would disgrace her family for generations.
She gave me the date she'd be leaving Mpls and I gave her my married sister's mailing address, in the event she wanted to contact me. One week earlier, to the day that she said she'd be leaving, she was gone. No tearful good-byes. Nothing. About a year and a half later, my sister informed me that I had a mailing from South Korea. No legitimate return address. Inside the envelope, a photograph of her holding a baby. On the back was written, "I wish he were ours." Not signed.
If she's still alive, she's 84, but in my mind's eye and as an occasional visitor in my dreams, she'll always be 28. Last night she visited.
! Seriously, a very heartfelt and bittersweet tale, and well told.
