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Years ago when I traveled a lot to the Far East and also to Europe
on business
trips, I made many friends, mostly among my Chinese "Far
East" colleagues. One
of those colleagues, Louis Wong, became a close friend and we
struck up a lasting friendship. We are still friends to
this day, even though I have not been to Hong Kong or Singapore
in many years.
I actually traveled at least 6 times annually to the Far East
for 10 of my 19½ years with the Computer Hard Disk Drive [HDD]
Company I worked for, stopping along the way in either Japan,
South Korea, Taiwan, China's Mainland, Macao, Hong Kong Island
& The New Territories of Kowloon, Malaysia and Singapore. I usually
spent most of my time in Hong Kong and Singapore. I
actually lived
with my family in Kowloon, Hong Kong at the base of Mount Hong
Kong for almost one year before my
company was "bought out" by our competition and I was
sent back to Loveland, Colorado.
I met
Louis' wife Angie in Singapore and their families
many times and was invited into his home with the warmest
feelings from all of them. He and his family have very
diverse working backgrounds. One thing is very evident, they are
all very well educated and, for example, all in his family
having a college degree. They are all educated under the influence of
the British education system, and even have a slight British accent
when they speak to you in English. My kids, in contrast,
attended the California International School in Hong Kong which
was run under the U.S. school curriculum. English,
"by-the-by", is the official
language of Singapore, something most people are not aware of.
His family were all raised in a very traditional Chinese
culture, and have all become converted to different
denominations of Christianity. They joined the
Catholic, Presbyterian, Mormon, Lutheran and Assembly of God Churches over
the years.
One day, Louis and Angie announced they were going to have a
baby. Thru normal medical examinations, as they progressed, they found out they were going to have a little
baby
girl. Louis is a very devout Catholic, as is Angie, and
they asked me to be their daughters Godfather. What an
honor that was, to be asked by friends on the other side of the
world, in a very different culture, to be part of their family
in such an important role. My family and I agreed without hesitation,
and we all had a joyous and tearful moment of celebration. We planned for me to take
special religious
courses on my next trips to Singapore which are required by the Catholic
church since I am not a Catholic, but am also a Christian.
I then scheduled my next trip as I normally would have since I
traveled to the Far East at least once per quarter back in those
days. However, because of budget restraints, my next two
trips to the Far East were cancelled and I was unable to visit
Singapore and take the required classes. Sadly, they decided that
they were unable to wait any longer for their daughters Christening
and announced that another member of
their immediate family would be named as their daughters
Godfather. I immediately contacted that young man and
congratulated him on the honor. He too has become a close
personal friend because of our common bond with Louis' daughter.
Both Louis and I were very disappointed about the inability for
me to return to Singapore and become his daughters
Godfather. In honor of my previously accepting that
responsibility, they named their daughter Leticia Amanda Wong. Actually, they had planned on this name the moment they found
out they were expecting a little girl. It just happens
that my daughters name is Amanda, and I was once again very honored
with this act of loyal friendship and respect when they told me why
they had selected to name her after my daughter. Louis had
met my daughter several times and she "took" to him
with great warmth which I am sure affected Louis' choice for
naming his own daughter Amanda. He had been welcomed
into our home in Colorado with open arms many times just as I
had been in Singapore.
Louis, in all his wisdom, said that since I was not able to be
his daughter's Godfather, that I would be known to her and their
entire family as her "Uncle Jim" from that day forward.
This too was quite an honor to have placed on me and I accepted
and thanked Louis and his family from the bottom of my
heart. Having their daughter named after mine, and then being
singled out as a special Uncle has meant the most to me of all
my memories from my travels to the Far East. The special
gifts they bestowed on me as mementos of the acceptance of such
a high responsibility are items I will cherish for the rest of
my life.
Whenever Louis and I communicated via E-Mail after the Christening of his
daughter, discussing our basic Quality Engineering business
responsibilities between Singapore and Colorado, he always began his
message to me with "Hello Uncle Jim". I always ended
my messages to him signing off as "Best Regards, Uncle Jim". We copied numerous co-workers as warranted by
the messages. This means we included our
immediate Managers and other top "need-to-know" officials
in the
Far East as well as the USA on almost all our messages.
Eventually everyone started calling and
addressing me as "Uncle Jim". This was most
evident in Singapore and Hong Kong. Whenever I traveled to
either manufacturing facility, I was always greeted and addressed as "Uncle Jim". Whenever I met my associates, whether its was passing them
in a aisleway, corridor, on the elevator or at a scheduled meeting, I was
always addressed or introduced as "Uncle Jim". This even
happened on Task Lists
and other individuals Interdepartmental messages.
There, now all of you that have asked me about why I always
refer to myself as "Uncle Jim" know most of the story in
this short message. There is a lot more to the
story, but this is the basic reason I am proud to be addressed
by my friends around the world as "Uncle Jim".
Thanks
for asking to all of you who wanted to know my special personal
story.
"Uncle Jim" Petersen
AZMCC Director
Sunday, July 1, 2007
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