The Butterfly Friends were in the Seattle area for a week. We planned the trip a year in advance and I planned to stay an extra day and a half and spend it with my goddaughter, L. You never know what will happen when you make plans that far out. L and her fiance, named I, were planning on getting married in summer 2020. That was confirmed at their engagement party in February 2019. Then in May, the Save-The-Date card came in the mail and the date was summer 2019--a full year earlier than planned and 6 days after my planned visit with L. Sad at first, I realized how special it would be to spend quality time with L just days before the big day because at the wedding, she would have so many other obligations, I wouldn't get that much time with her. And as it turned out, that time with her was precious.
As I usually do, while on the trip with the Butterfly Friends, I was posting a lot of pictures and stories on Facebook. My friend and UMF colleague Linda saw that I was in Seattle. She commented that she was coming out the next week for a production of her play/monologues titled “American Dreams: Immigration Stories”. I missed the performances in Maine last year because I was in Australia and was always sad to have missed it. Her plays are always fabulous.
And just my amazing good fortune: one of the two production nights in Seattle lined up with the one night I had in town with L. So I bought tickets, L drove, and we had a wonderful evening. I wrote on FB that night, "Ten of Linda’s monologues were combined with a one-act play, “The Act of Remembering,” along with a panel discussion and a performance art piece called “Letters” to create the production, “Sincerely, America.” Courthouse Square was the perfect venue. We sat in the jury box. One of the panelists is a naturalized citizen whose citizenship ceremony was in this very courtroom. The whole event was very compelling. Linda’s monologues were definitely the best part."
