A Perfect Sadness



Jo-Jo, Fiona and Judy



Yesterday may have been a “Perfect Ten” … but today is just ‘Perfectly Sad’. It is the last day for our wonderful girls from China to be with us … our “Adopted Daughters”, Fiona, Judy and Jo-Jo. These delightful young women came to us through an International Exchange program and have been part of our Housekeeping Team here at The Lodge all summer. They arrived in June and it has been an experience that we will never forget. That first day, the three of them came through the door all smiles and sunshine, three of the happiest people I have ever met. First impressions are usually pretty correct, but often they can be also be exaggerated by the desire to be very polite. The amazing thing is that these young women were just plain nice all the time, genuinely happy, sincere in wanting to please. It didn’t matter if it had been raining for a week straight (they usually walked to work, a mile away) … weather never got them down. It made no difference if we were so busy that they had to work 9 hours of hard, heavy housekeeping work, carrying bags of laundry that weighed more than they did; they were just as full of smiles at the end of the day as they were when they walked through the door. They also had just as much energy when they left as when they arrived each day. Several days a week they also had a second job for the evening shift over at the Thompson House Eatery, where they were just as well-loved by Larry and crew as they were by all of us. It was totally amazing how hard they worked and what a wonderful, positive attitude they had. They made our summer and fall very bright, indeed.

Fiona, Judy and Jo-Jo are students at the University in Shanghai, a city with such a dense population that in comparison, Manhattan looks rather rural. And here they were in Jackson, NH … a little New England village so small and unpopulated, that culture shock must have been doubly difficult. And yet they loved it here and fit in so well, a tribute to their flexibility and engaging spirits. Part of their exchange program duties required them to keep a journal, and also for us to write comments in it about their attitudes, work ethics, etc. Their writing was beautiful … as was their mastery of the English language. As we went to make an entry in their journals, we of course, could not read Chinese … but it touched our hearts to see a few familiar words in Fiona’s diary one day. Amongst the Chinese characters we read "I love you, Jackson!" and in another, "I love you, USA!"    I could say the same thing about them: “We love you Fiona, Judy and Jo-Jo. Thank you for everything … we’re going to miss you very much.” I hope we can stay in touch forever!