A dear friend of mine had been asking me for years to write an account of my life. I never attempted it because I felt I was not a writer and didn’t think I had the capability of doing it.
Chi Newman in Tucson
Sitting in an air-conditioned hotel room in Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic, I had nothing to do and it was much too hot to go outside. I bought an inexpensive notebook and decided to start my memoir.
To my amazement, the memories that had been for so long stored in my heart began to pour out and I was actually getting excited.
I knew that my children and grandchildren would enjoy reading about my life, and perhaps others would as well. I wrote my friend and told him that I was finally going to follow his suggestion.
This was the beginning of my book, Farewell, My Beijing: The long journey from China to Tucson.
My life has been one adventure after another – from a life of relative influence and luxury as a child growing up in Beijing before the Communists took over China, to literally traveling and living throughout the world, and finally settling down with my husband in active retirement in America’s beautiful southwest city of Tucson, Arizona.
My daughter Leslie lives nearby. My son Jeffrey, his wife Andrea and their two beautiful daughters live in Scottsdale. After all of our travels, we finally have our family nearby and we get together often.
Dick and I enjoy social evenings with our friends and sometimes play poker. I play tennis almost every day and duplicate bridge three times a week. In my spare time, I bake, watch the Food Channel and CNN, and read mystery novels.
My book was published in 2008 and has been well received. It is available on Amazon.com. I am also a contributor to JustOneOpinion.com, writing articles about whatever interests me at any given time.
When I look back on my life, I am often reminded of the song that Edith Piaf sang, “Non je ne regrette rien.” All in all, I feel that this is true: “I regret nothing.”
Farewell, My Beijing: The Long Journey from China to Tucson
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