I'm looking for one woman in particular and she could be just about anywhere in China. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack... I'm pretty optimistic about finding her, but I'm running out of ideas. I was hoping to get some suggestions from you guys. I'm about ready to contact a TV station to see if my story is interesting enough, but I'm not so sure.
Her name is Hua Xiaomei. It's a pretty common name, so that's no working in my favor. She's an old friend of my family's since she came to visit through an international exchange program linking researchers in America and China. Both my grandfather and Xiaomei studied a particular kind of beneficial fungus that helps restore nutrients to soil. It's called mychorizae and I spent my whole childhood hearing about it. It was my grandfather's livelihood. Both sides spent an few months in the others' home country. I always thought it was so neat that my grandparents went to China--the place where I tried to dig holes to. I was six, by the way, when they went.
My grandfather has since died and my grandmother lost touch with Xiaomei. She retired from her research institute five years ago. I've called her old work, but they have no idea where she is. They've told me twice that they'll look for her and give her my contact info if they do happen to find her, but I think this is a dead end. I'm serious about contacting a TV station since there are these sort of reunion stories on fairly regularly. Does anyone have any other ideas? Has anyone ever searched for an old friend? In another country? In China?
She was so nice to my family and I remember her cooking for us a little. Others have told me stories about eating loads and loads of dumplings and fried rice for days. I'd do just about anything to find her and restore the broken connection.
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Reminds me of the separation of twins stories we always hear about, except yours seems oddly more compassionate. I wonder how helpful the Chinese government would be in locating her...
The Once-ler: Well, what do you want? I should shut down my factory, fire a hundred-thousand workers? Is that good economics, is that sound for the country?
she sounds like a wonderful and fascinating lady...pretty cool that your grandfather was into the same type of fungus she was...(I just love the things that draw two nerds together; oh and I mean nerds in an endearing way...I'm not making fun of your grandfather or the old family friend...)
Love ya,
Carrot