Personal note: I love strong moms. My mom was one of these superwomen who strived for a better life. She broke the Iron Curtain and fought to be among the first to ever leave China to study in the West in 🇬🇧. She was one of first to meet Prince Philip & the Queen on UK soil...
2) She then came to America by herself (unable to afford to bring me) to study for her PhD & worked/studied 80-100 hr weeks to save up enough money to afford $5-10 int’l phone calls, and ultimately enough for 2 one-way @United plane tickets for me/dad to be reunited in Nebraska.
3) My mother was strong and tough as nails. Probably why I one day married someone equally strong @andreafeigl1. But my mom was silently modest too... and she had a secret. Many years ago, after we settled in Pennsylvania, @ABC @Nightline producers one day called her out of blue:
4) The @ABC producers wanted to invite her to a @Nightline show. Note my mom was a modest professor of social studies and elementary education at small @shippensburgU. She asked why on Earth? They said it was for a 30 year reunion. “Reunion?” she asked puzzled. “Yes” ABC said...
5) Producers went on: “30 years ago, when Richard Nixon visited China, our ABC News delegation sent a crew to interview young modern women in China”—who spoke fluent English of course, which was then rare. Then it dawned on her what it was about—she did recall one interview...
6) it was a long half day in-depth interview (because they could find few who spoke fluent English like my mother did—cuz she fought her way to be among first to study in 🇬🇧). But my mom had no idea which reporter interviewed her all those years ago—until ABC showed her the clip:
7) On the grainy @ABC footage was her in her early twenties... being interviewed by a skinny young reporter named: Ted Koppel, @real_ted_koppel, later host of @Nightline. She remembered the interview but had no clue who he was. She agreed to go on Nightline for 30 year reunion...
8) And for years, she did not me about the interview, nor even when the Nightline interview aired on TV. She just non chalantly showed me a DVD one day at home months later. She didn’t care to share because it didn’t define her. By then in early 2000s, she had lived thru so much.
9) in the end, what my mom cared about was imparting her wisdoms of how we made it as immigrants in 🇺🇸—because she wanted to train me to be tough as nails like her. She wasn’t just a Tiger mom like @amychua—instead my mom was the tiger 🐅. So, love all the brave moms out there!❤️
10) My mom was also tough enough to travel from UK 🇬🇧 back to China—via the train 🚂. Specifically from France to West Germany, thru Berlin, to East Germany, to Moscow, and the across the barren tundra of the Trans-Siberian Railroad back to China. She survived on ramen noodles.
