FAVORITE MEMORIES OF WILLIAMS

Sitting in Prof. Hunt’s tiny office at Stetson, reviewing my C-minus paper on Romeo and Juliet.

A coed “sleep-out” on Stone Hill with the cows greeting us in the morning.

A walk in Hopkins Forest with a classmate I was getting to know.

Freshman English class with Prof. Berek elucidating the meaning of the pond in a Eudora Welty short story.

Watching from the balcony of Lasell Gym as Sam and Dave gave a memorable concert.

CURRENT INTERESTS, PASSIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

Kayaking and camping; Family history; Meditation and spirituality; Spending weekly online sessions with my six-year-old granddaughter in Queens; Volunteering for POWER Interfaith, a community-organizing group based in North Philadelphia; I support Carmen Pampa Fund, which assists a college for indigenous youth in Bolivia; Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP); Warren Wilson College; and Williams.

LIFE SINCE GRADUATION

My 40th reunion biography closed on an optimistic note: “I continue to relish opportunities to learn and grow.” These were the confident words of someone who retired early and was looking ahead to serving in the Peace Corps. And then came the bumps in the road . . . and a surprising new chapter in my life. A journey from Cambridge, Mass., to Ukraine to West Philadelphia.

From 2013 to 2014 I served as a Community Development volunteer in Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), a city of one million people five hours south of Kiev, the capital. I lived alone, worked at a social services agency, and tried to learn enough Russian to survive. It was exactly the intense, uncomfortable, cross-cultural, and enriching experience I had been seeking. I was proud to represent the US abroad, though I began to think more deeply and critically about America’s place in the world. Ukrainians nudged me in new directions.

Then a revolution began in the streets of major cities in November 2013. Soon after, I developed pneumonia and spent five days in a hospital in Kiev. Suddenly, in January 2014, I was on plane to Washington for medical care, and all volunteers in Ukraine were evacuated for security reasons. A two-year program was cut in half. I arrived at my son’s home in Philadelphia at a low point in my promising “retirement life”: I was sick, disappointed, and angry at the abrupt exit from Peace Corps service. And nowhere to go, since my home in Cambridge was rented for two years!

I soon stopped sulking and started walking around my son’s West Philly neighborhood. I got my own place, no bigger than my tiny Soviet-era studio in Dnipropetrovsk. I observed the racial and economic diversity of my new neighborhood; the influx of young people, including artists and musicians; and the co-existence (albeit an uneasy one) of long-time residents and outsiders. I started thinking about the life ahead of me in new ways. I realized it was not a given that I move back to Cambridge and New England, where I had lived for 45 years. Why not begin again here, near family? My year in Ukraine had opened me to new possibilities, whatever they might be. Having taken one big risk, why not another?

Near the end of 2014, nine months into my Philly experiment, I met a woman on a Meet Up walk in Center City. Our conversation that day sparked a long-term relationship. We talked about our shared experiences of living alone in another country. Hye-Jung had just returned from three years in Bolivia, where she taught English at a college for indigenous youth. Our stories and backgrounds were very different, but my openness to other cultures was important to her, a Korean-American who had emigrated to the US at 19. Eventually, we moved to a new apartment together; traveled to Korea to see her mother; visited the college in Bolivia where she taught; and adopted a cat, Bandi. We have shared many highs and lows together, including health issues and the pandemic.

In Philadelphia, I have enjoyed satisfying volunteer relationships with two community organizations. For four years, I worked as a prep cook at MANNA, a prominent nutrition program for people with chronic illnesses. I have also assisted in the office of POWER, an interfaith community organizing group focused on racial equality, climate justice, and ending mass incarceration. In the fall, I am looking forward to starting a new relationship, volunteering for Penn Medicine Hospice. I am grateful to be living near family, sharing a loving relationship, and serving the community.