A Sad Story

Today I would like to share my sad story with you. I had been corresponding an elder American guy eighteen years ago. Although you can not imagine that I was a teddy bear artist from my current carrier, I was into it. I met him on a Teddy Bear magazine. I posted my handmade teddy bears' pictures on the magazine, and the guy sent me a mail. I am a big fan of Teddy Bears and have corrected them a lot for a long time. I also had been making miniature teddy bears at the time. My corresponding friend, Bill Boyd was a popular collector of teddy bears, and he had a teddy bear convention in Kansas City.

After two years, he invited me his convention. At the time I started to entry some teddy bears' contests, and I had received some awards in Japan. I was kind of popular as a teddy bear artist in Japan. Since I wanted to try to entry my miniature bears in his convention's contest, I went to Kansas City with my family. My daughter was only six months old.

I had a great time there. I got a first prize of miniature category. I met lots of teddy bear artists there. I met Bill's best friend, Linda there. Although Linda was a small elder lady, she laughed out loud and seemed to be energetic. I could not communicate people in English very well, but I made lots of friends there. I could not remember how I communicated with people in English. I guess that I communicated with them with a body language, written English and oral English.

After the convention, Bill invited us his house. My husband and he also became good friends. He showed his wonderful teddy bears' correction to us. While we had been staying at his house for two weeks, he took around us a lot. We went some teddy bear shops, shopping malls, teddy bear and miniature museums, some historical places in Kansas City.

After I returned to Japan, while I was raising my daughter, I worked as a part time math teacher and a teddy bear artist. However, it was very difficult for me to do them at the same time. I lost interested in making teddy bears gradually. After I moved to another place, I lost both Bill's and Linda's address. I have lost keep in touch with them for a long time.

After 14 years, when I started to learn conversational English, I remembered him. I tried to look for him via the Internet, but I could not find him. However, a couple of days ago, I had an idea to use facebook, and I might be able to look for him. I received a very sad news yesterday. He already passed away. Linda also dead. I am very sad and regretted a lot. I also cannot believe in his death because Billy and my father were same in age, and my father is still very fine. I received some information about him from someone who knows him on facebook. After he suffered with heart problem, he moved into a nursing home. He dead three to four yeas ago. It is too sad. I cried yesterday, but he never returns back. All I have to do is to pray his soul will rest in peace.

I realized that life is short, and in addition in my left life how many friends I will meet. I would like to keep in touch with my friends without regretting.