A real love story- Nepal 1987

I returned to Nepal in 1987. I will steal an old journal entry of mine for this post-- because it
captures an interesting part of my stay in Nepal.

Daniel was in New Delhi while Sean and I were up in Nepal. My hands were full making sure a team of people were taken care of. After running around getting bus rides secured for Pokhara and various other destinations....the team arrived. Everything went like clockwork and before I knew it they were gone. The day after the team left, I decided I would just relax. With a book in hand, I trotted outside and told Sean to play in the grass. My head was buried in my book for quite some time, a quick glance up every now and then told me Sean was fine. I must have gotten lost in the story, because the next thing I knew I heard screaming from around the house. I leaped up and ran towards the yelling.

There stood one of the young girls from the children's home pulling Sean out of a hole- this wasn't just any hole- this was the cesspool- the place all the human refuse went into. Someone forgot to put the cover over the hole and Sean fell in. If the tiny girl didn't pull Sean out of the hole he would have drowned in that muck. I swooped him up in my arms. He was coughing. I couldn't be happier to hear him cough, because at least that meant he was alive! After a quick shower, I thought all was going to be fine. Unfortunately, a few days later he lay sick in bed. He was dying. (literally)

My sister helped me get him to the hospital and after several blood tests and stool samples, the doctors were shocked. They said he had every kind of dysentery a person could have. I enlightened them about his trip down into the cesspool. Nothing more needed to be said. They informed me that he was very ill and might not survive. When you hear those words you want your husband to be next to you- you just want him to say "It's gonna be okay"

I told my sister to be with Sean, and I rushed down to the Post Office and sent a telegram to India. "Sean dying. stop. Need your prayers. stop."

Daniel has told me later, that he received the telegram and started crying. He knew he wanted to put a little faith into action. He wanted to get up to Nepal to see me, but he had no money to pay for his ticket. His story is that he was kneeling at his bed praying with his hands lifted up in the air and his eye caught sight of his wedding ring. He stood up immediately and went to sell the ring to get the money to fly up to see me. Now, a second problem he faced was that he had never been to Nepal and he had no idea where I was. He spoke with someone who had been there and they tried to explain the way to him

"You take a taxi from the airport to Boudha, and then you tell them to keep driving past the Stupa, you'll see a huge red house and you keep going...then you'll see a white house....but that isn't the one yet...you go further, and finally you will see another white house and the house you want is behind that house."

Believe it or not, he found the right house! Love can make a man do impossible things!!! I had no idea he was coming. When I saw him standing in front of me, I just screamed and started blubbering. I scared the pants off the two Nepali men standing next to me. My arms flew around his neck and I squeezed him so hard. This was also a bit of a shock for the Nepali men, as women and men didn't show much public affection in those days.
Sean did eventually get better and twelve years later we bought a new ring to replace the one Daniel sold. It never bothered me that he didn't have a ring for all those years, because every time I looked at his ring less finger, it just reminded me of how much he loved Sean and me.