03-01-2020, Monday, raining
Shirah is my daughter’s friend and she is pursuing her Ph.D. with a focus on comparative literature.
The 2020′s quarantine not only reduced the social interaction between ordinary people, but also dramatically changed the full-time college students’s lifestyle, from going to school to attend class, to staying home watching the computer screen to attend class. Because an active social life is a very important part of college life, these sudden changes caused college students who were faraway from home much discomfort. Full-time graduate student Shirah who was faraway from her parents also experienced such discomfort.
My daughter had studied abroad for many years, and she said she had experienced homesickness even during normal social lifetime (such as going to class, meeting teachers and classmates in person, dinning with friends…). So she often walked with Shirah on campus in 2020.
Because Shirah had no car, my daughter and her went shopping together once a week. If my daughter was busy, I would go shopping with Shirah. Gradually, I got to know Shirah as a young girl with a delicate heart. She was always wearing high heels paired with various pretty skirts, I asked her once and knew she never wore pants.
In my mind Shirah was an elegant girl who majored in liberal arts. I never thought that Shirah would become my heroine in 2021.
In the big snowstorm on February 2nd, 2021, my daughter and I were rushing to downtown Boston. After we arrived in Boston, I suddenly remembered that I had not turned off the stove before I left the house.
Considering that driving back home in the big snowstorm would take around an hour, my daughter calmly called our neighbors for help, but some neighbors were already at work and some didn’t answer the phone. My daughter immediately called Shirah and begged her to go to our house to turn off the fire.
Shirah, in her normal outfit, with high heels and a skirt, rushed about a mile in a big snowstorm to our house.
Once she arrived to our front door, my daughter was on the phone with Shirah.
Shirah had difficulty opening our door and I heard her almost crying over the phone.
After Shirah got into the house, my daughter anxiously asked whether our kitchen was on fire?
Shirah replied: “Kara (our darling cat princess) is at the doorway, the kitchen seems fine.”
My daughter anxiously asked: “Did you turn off the fire?”
Shirah said: “Not yet, I am taking my shoes off in the hallway.”
After caming back home, we thanked Shirah. Looking at the dried-up ceramic pot and the shrunken marinated pork belly, I realized that driving back to turn off the fire probably would be too late.
February is already gone and a few days ago, I was talking to my daughter: “Shirah wore high heels and a skirt in a big snowstorm and walked a mile to rescue our house, she is my heroine!”
My daughter replied: “Oh, when I told Shirah that I would save this story for her children later, she joked: ‘Yes, I will need that to boost my image.’”
Little Episodes
The outfits that Shirah wore to rescue our house in the big snowstorm on February 2nd, 2021.
The note that my daughter asked me to put on the door is a constant reminder each time I get out of the house.
February 1st, 2021, weather was the dominant topic on the radio news, because there would be 7 to 15 inches of snow today and tomorrow. The first day of February’s night sight of deep and fluffy snow on the ground and big snow flakes in the air:
