• What you can discover when socializing •
[1½ MIN READ]
Shoshana is the youngest sister of GGR regular J’Adam (“J” is for Jenkintown). I had learned that both of his 2 younger sisters ran, but neither had ever joined us before. After visiting a few times and hanging out for the usual afterruns, I got to talking with Shoshana about her Chinese heritage. This was not mere curiosity: not only am I also Chinese, but both of my children with Wife are Chinese adoptees. Knowing that Shoshana grew up in Jenkintown, I thought of 2 other sisters my family knows in the borough.
In 1999, 5 families traveled together to China to adopt children, one was Wife and me. The other was the Winters (pseudonym — and elsewhere). Although the other families were from as far away as Virginia, the Wangs and the Winters lived a mere mile apart. As circumstances would have it, both families also adopted second children; them, a second daughter, us, a son. At roughly the same time, Adam’s family adopted 2 Chinese girls.
It was the [Winter] family that I mentioned casually to Shoshana because both sets of children would have attended the same schools and the younger girls would probably have been not far from each other in age: “They live on Greenwood Ave.” Shoshana said in reply, “Do you mean the Winters? I know Merri, she’s a year older than me.”
Read another account of an unusually close connection (“You’re My Neighbor”).
What some term “degrees of separation” might better be described as “degrees of connection.” And they made GGR a little smaller and warmer.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT ¶Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2025’10’22’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Cerebrun with added caption.
Go up one level
iCandybyWangC 