Success Story: Coming of Age in Samoa

COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA

APRIL 1997

My parents, a radical white American anthropologist and a Samoan Princess, are a success story for all people. They not only beat the odds, they were pioneers.

My mom and dad met in Samoa while my dad was doing some field work there. My mother saw him on a bus, and half-seriously told herself that this was the man she would marry. Well, as it turns out, my dad must have said the same thing to himself because he found a way to meet and befriend her for the dur ation of his stint in Samoa. When he had to leave, he proposed to her, but she turned him down.

As soon as my dad left, my mom discovered that indeed, she did love him and was now kicking herself for letting him go. Later that year, though, she fulfilled her lifelong dream, and immigrated to the US. To make a long story short, she found him in Boston, and he immediately proposed, despite the reservations of his parents, friends and family.

My parents married in 1959 when it was absolutely unthinkable for a priviledged white person (as my father was) to marry anything else than a peer. But they did, and they had a strong, stable marriage despite comments from other professor's wives about my mom being no more than a maid, my grandparent's pronouncements that it would not last (they later recanted, and my mom says her best friend was her mother-in-law) and the sneers of white neighbors, confused at the sight of my mom (a full inch taller than my dad) and dad playing with their brown-ish children.

We all have a place, and if two people care for each other, they can make it work - my parents did it in the 50's and 60's - it should be easy now in the 90's.

Jessica

My parents, a radical white American anthropologist and a Samoan Princess, are a success story for all people. They not only beat the odds, they were pioneers.
	My mom and dad met in Samoa while my dad was doing some field work there. My mother saw him on a bus, and half-seriously told herself that this was the man she would marry. Well, as it turns out, my dad must have said the same thing to himself because he found a way to meet and befriend her for the dur ation of his stint in Samoa. When he had to leave, he proposed to her, but she turned him down.
As soon as my dad left, my mom discovered that indeed, she did love him and was now kicking herself for letting him go. Later that year, though, she fulfilled her lifelong dream, and immigrated to the US. To make a long story short, she found him in Boston, and he immediately proposed, despite the reservations of his parents, friends and family.
	My parents married in 1959 when it was absolutely unthinkable for a priviledged white person (as my father was) to marry anything else than a peer. But they did, and they had a strong, stable marriage despite comments from other professor's wives about my mom being no more than a maid, my grandparent's pronouncements that it would not last (they later recanted, and my mom says her best friend was her mother-in-law) and the sneers of white neighbors, confused at the sight of my mom (a full inch taller than my dad) and dad playing with their brown-ish children.
We all have a place, and if two people care for each other, they can make it work - my parents did it in the 50's and 60's - it should be easy now in the 90's.