Unexpected Visit

When I was 8 we had a foreign exchange student from the Netherlands live with us. Last night she unexpectedly called DeNae saying she was in town and wanted to visit. So tonight we piled the kids in the car and headed over for a short visit with our "sister" from across the world.


Coos is lively, out going, lovely, well educated and I suspect wealthy too. It amazed me how easy it seemed for her to walk into a houseful of people she hadn't seen in 20 years and make everyone feel comfortable.



I remember being very excited to have another sister, even though at the time of her arrival we were still building our house and lived in a single wide trailer. I think at one time we had 6 girls living in one bedroom of that house.





Her family would send us the most divine licorice. I admit to being slightly disappointed that she didn't bring us any tonight. Dutch licorice combines the best of sweet and salty treats. Joey loves licorice, too. I'll settle for twizzler's black licorice if I have to, but I'd much rather have the real thing.

One day Coos spent the whole afternoon trying to teach me letters and numbers in Dutch. I wasn't a very good student. More often than not when my Dad said "I love you," it was in Dutch. I can remember how to say that, but that's about as far as my linguistic talent goes. If you end up in the Netherlands don't tell anyone "a cow said mew" unless you really mean it.

Another time my Mom and my sister went for a walk and wouldn't let me come. I through a major fit. Coos consoled me with a few pieces of candy. It was the nicest thing anyone had done for me. It was so nice in fact that I tried that little stunt again, but I didn't get anymore candy. What a waste of energy, I remember thinking to myself.

I'm glad she came to visit and thought to give DeNae a call.