April 21st. Today is my parents' anniversary.
They were married on this day in 1959, on Gibraltar, with only my father's good friend and editor, Frank White, in attendance.
My parents had met in Algiers, at an al fresco luncheon to both celebrate my mother's birthday, and my father's new post as bureau chief for Time-Life.
My father was instantly smitten, but my mother had other plans than to marry. She was leading a happy care-free life and was about to spend all winter skiing with friends in Austria.
Two years passed. When Time-Life asked my father to open the bureau in Hong Kong, and report on China and Southeast Asia, my mother finally agreed to marry and move to Hong Kong. The rest is history.
On this day, they had a whole beautiful, remarkable, glamorous life in front of them. My mother looks radiant with happiness. Words cannot describe how painfully I miss them. And the life we did have.