What follows is a short story from Rosemary’s past. After talking with her, I have taken our discussion and turned it into a series of small stories highlighting the incredible life that she has led. Direct quotes from our discussion are highlighted in quotation marks. All else is a retelling written by yours truly.
Anybody reading this in America might think it strange that the fourth Thursday in November holds no significance for the rest of the world (Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving but on a different day).
It’s nothing but another ordinary Thursday. Which is why, when Rosemary was asked by her friend how she was going to celebrate Thanksgiving, she didn’t know. She hadn’t celebrated Thanksgiving before.
So she asked what she was supposed to do and instead of sending over a recipe and some general guidance surrounding the day her friend told her to spend it with them. These were friends Rosemary and Bill had known during their days in Iran (it’s a small world) and Rosemary was more than happy to oblige.
So Rosemary and Bill took their two children that were still with them and flew from Colorado to Los Angeles on the Wednesday of Thanksgiving week. When they arrived they were met by their friend and taken straight to Universal Studios where they spent the day exploring the theme park and going on as many different rides as they could (Rosemary also spent much of the day hiding behind her children whenever something jumped out at them on the scarier rides).
After a glorious day they jumped in the car and drove down to San Diego, where their friends lived, and spent the night there before experiencing a traditional American Thanksgiving the next day. Rosemary’s friends would go every year to one of their mother’s houses and all the extended family would get together for a big old Thanksgiving meal. Three or four generations of family sat around these table. This year at the table also sat a – rather shell-shocked, I imagine – British family of four wondering what on earth they had gotten into with moving to America.
Well they had a lovely time getting to meet everyone and getting to chat and reminisce about old times in Iran after all these years. Before flying back to Colorado they stayed for a couple more days, crossing the border into Mexico and spending a few hours in Tijuana (these were the days when American’s didn’t need passports and could just walk across the bridge) on Friday, and spending the day at Disneyland on Saturday.
It was quite the trip for a family who only a couple of months earlier moved to America and who had never been to California. Quite surreal too, I imagine. But they loved it and flew back exhausted but happy on that Saturday night.
Stay tuned for more stories from the life of Rosemary. Please note: these stories will not necessarily hold any chronological grounding. They are designed as snippets of understanding into the life of Rosemary and while some will hold chronology, others may not.
Photo Credit: The photo in the logo was provided by Jed Owen on Unsplash. If you would like to see more of their work, click here.