Picture: Christina and Pam aboard “Shuang Yu”.

Christina has been my childhood friend since the early sixties. When my mom and I left China in 1962, we went to live with my aunt and uncle in Hong Kong. Christina’s mom and my aunt owned the apartment together. My aunt and uncle had two grown boys and a fiancé. Christina’s mom had Christina and two brothers and their grandmother. Besides the people I mentioned, they had other families as tenants. One family had a husband and wife, two small children, a mother-in-law and her grown daughter. The other family also had a husband and wife, two small children and a mother-in-law. There were twenty-one people already in the apartment before my mom and I arrived. Christina’s father was a sailor and he spent most of his time at sea but when he returned, it would be one more person added to the list, which made a grand total of twenty-four people sharing an apartment with one bathroom and one kitchen. My mom and I shared the middle bunk in a small windowless room along with Christina and her grandmother on the bottom bunk. The only source of light in the room was a bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling. The top bunk was occupied by my cousin’s fiancé. That was how Christina and I got acquainted. For three years in Hong Kong, we were best friends. After I emigrated to America in 1965 and she went to Canada a little later, we remained in contact.

Christina and her husband, David, who live in Vancouver, visited us onboard “Shuang Yu” for a lovely dinner and conversation. Now that we live in Washington, we can see each other more often; which is great.