Cheo Taylor talks with his father, Donald, about how his parents met while he was in the Air Force and she was a secretary on a military base. They dated for nine months and were married in December 1958, before divorcing in 1970 and remarrying in 1980.
Originally aired November 27, 2007, on NPR’s News & Notes and on April 11, 2008, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Cheo: How did you and mom meet?
Donald: I was in the air-force and your mom worked at Fort Mason here in San Francisco. And one day one of the guys that I work with, he says, Don, he says, you need to go up to base headquarters, there is a beautiful women up there you should check her out. And so I marched up the hill and walked into the office and I saw your mother taking short hand and I just stood there and watched her, and after about five minutes I walked up to her and introduced myself. And about nine months later we were married.
Cheo: Nine months?
Donald: Yeah, nine or ten months.
Cheo: Wow. So what was it, I mean what was she put the spell on you, she did something?
Donald: Absolutely. I find myself downtown looking in jewelry stores and I never knew how I got there for wedding rings. She absolutely knocked me out, I mean I was captivated.
Cheo: This love story that you all have had is definitely unique, you know? You were married for a number of years, got divorced…
Donald: That’s right.
Cheo: And then found yourself in love again and remarried.
Donald: That’s right I was doing fairly well, I was a manager for the telephone company, I was making pretty good money. But at the same time I found myself under going a tremendous amount of inner pain and turmoil, which resulted in drinking and running with my buddies and stuff like that until finally your mom got tired of it after about twelve years of marriage and we split. And after we split I really ran wild for about seven years. And by that time I knew that I had to get my life back in order, and the woman that I always loved and never stopped loving was your mom and we started dating again and then a couple of years later we were married again, so we’ve been back together now thirty years.
Cheo: You know I’m very proud of you because I know a lot of people who you know may have left their wife their kids and just abandoned everybody and then just disappeared. And you know you came back and I know if you hadn’t come back I wouldn’t be the man I am now, so I love you for that.
Donald: Thank you, thank you, appreciate that Cheo. I’m equally proud of your achievements as a man.
Cheo: Thanks dad I appreciate it, and I’m just glad we got a chance to talk and put this stuff down…
Donald: Right.
Cheo: You know, for posterity.
Donald: Thank you Cheo. Love you.
Cheo: Love you too.
When Deborah Wei and her family moved to the Philadelphia suburbs in the 1960’s, they were the only Asian family in their neighborhood. Deborah remembers how her mother made their new surroundings feel like home.
