papercutPhoto lifted here.

Lin used to live in our town way back in 2001. I am usually not good at finding oriental nationals in the neighborhood, while my husband is. On my day off, I hardly ever go out except when I take a walk. Lin and her husband walked every single day, and passed by our neighborhood regularly, so that is how I spotted them. To make the story short, we became friends.

Unfortunately, their marriage was short-lived. The guy was an asshole.  Plain and simple.  He wouldn’t let her find her independence, yet he practically starved her to death. How would she survive on a mere $20 a week allowance? How ridiculous! Heck, on toiletries alone, that amount is not enough.  I wonder how she managed to get by with that measly allowance over the years she’d lived with him.

Lin is a very nice lady from China. She cooks and cleans well, and possesses abundant skills.  Her only flaw is her broken English.  She has been living in the USA for about 10 years, and so far, there has only been a slight improvement in her English. My husband thinks she has gone backwards. Though, most of the time, I understand her on the first shot because we have been friends for some time.

When things in her household became difficult for her to handle, she felt it was time to leave.  She put on a brave facade as I never saw her shed tears.  Fortunately, she found a lawyer who took her case although it wasn’t easy finding one as she didn’t have the money to pay for lawyer fees at that moment.  One lawyer in town only talked to her once, and if she needed a second consultation, they required her to pay a certain amount otherwise, they would dismiss her.  And that is what happened.

After she received the settlement money (I know how much she received but will not disclose it here),  she moved down to Phoenix, purchased a used car, and lived in with a friend. In a short span of time, she  found another boyfriend,  moved in with him, and eventually married him. Life with the new husband was rocky even from the start because the son of her husband saw her as a competition to his dad’s love and attention. Indeed, the saying, blood is thicker than water,  is true.  Her husband, despite of his claims of his love for her, took the side of his 30 years old son who, up to this day, still lives at the mercy of his father. Unfortunately, like the previous marriage, the second marriage was also a failure.

Luckily,  she has a job at the airport, and at the Community College as part-time Chinese teacher. Plus, she does Chinese papercut (photo above)  in between her two jobs that pays her  a decent revenue.  She sells her products at a Cultural Center in Phoenix. Very clever girl, I thought. And I was told that she receives a small pension in China as she was once a teacher in Chinese Music Conservatory. No wonder why she has a beautiful sweet voice.

This morning, I learned that she is planning on purchasing a house by the Phoenix airport. Evidently, she was able to save $90,000 over the years, despite her 2 unsuccessful marriages. I was surprised upon learning at how well she did given the economic situation that we are currently experiencing, and who knows how long will this continue.  She must have saved a big portion of her modest salary every month, and still was able to live and eat pretty decently.

Pretty amazing woman, huh? Would you have been able to save that much in 4 years? My answer is No. You?

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