Sometime in the middle of February I’d
received a letter from Scott.
From: Scott Claus [mailto:sclaus@animo43.anim.dreamworks.com]
Sent:
To: MichaelS@paccessglobal.com
Subject: You Ready for this one?
Hello-
Sorry I couldn't talk
t' other day. No big stories, everything went quite
well and a splendid
time was had by all. Some funny stories concerning
international confrontations
… but I'm mainly writing to ask if you'd like
to know about Tiina
getting married.
Mom sent me a blurb from the Sun. If you'd like to
know the details I'll
send 'em to you this aft., or if you'd rather
I can just send the article
via snail mail or tell me and I'll set
the article on fire FOR you.
At any rate I think you'll want to hear
the details, but maybe not from me
(don't shoot ME, I'm just the messenger!)
… Later-
This set me numb. Tiina was an exchange
student in high school, and my first girlfriend. When Tiina
was coming back for her ten year high school reunion, I naturally
heard about it and we picked up where we left off. Of course,
it didn't work out and I pulled the plug on it. But
never being one to leave well enough alone, of course I had to have
the details, so he sent them to me in a later Email, with the particulars. The connection was that Tiina’s former American host mother’s mother-in-law
wrote a column for the local newspaper, if you can follow that. Tiina made it into the local news this way. Scott's mom passed
the word along.
From: Scott Claus [mailto:sclaus@animo48.anim.dreamworks.com]
Sent:
To: MichaelS@paccessglobal.com
Subject:
Pigs are flying and hell has an ice rink...
So spaketh Elsa (Simonson)
in the 2/16 Sun:
"Tiina, who was an exchange student from Finland,
who graduated
from Sheridan High School in 1984, got married on Saturday,
to Scott Alper
of Hartford, Conn.
"The small family ceremony was
held in nearby
Silversmith's, an old silver factory
which has been converted into a
restaurant. A dinner followed the
wedding ceremony.
"Among the wedding guests were Scott's parents; Tiina's
cousin and spouse
from
Ariz., who was a classmate in high school
… John and Rosemary (sorry) Simonson of
Pendleton, who were Tiina's
host parents in
"Tiina's parents from
through the marvels of modern communication,
they were able to view and hear
the proceedings at their
"The
young couple have a home in
company,
of which Scott is the co-owner."
It was the weirdest sensation. I felt a sense of relief in a way, and yet a little bit of a loss.
Up until that point, Tiina had been the only person I’d asked to marry
me. Our relationship was damned to fail, but I convinced myself
that there was a jewel buried deep inside her. Of course,
I was kidding myself.
As I explained to Scott much later, my
relationship with Tiina gave me a new appreciation for women in abusive
relationships. Despite that warm golden glow inside of her,
Tiina was generally very bitter and negative. I could never completely
divorce myself from the reality of those two parts of her were inseparable. I had ignored a lot of the signs at the time thinking that if I was
just myself, that would be good enough to let the gem in her surface,
and things would be fine forever. With hindsight it’s easy to
see how ridiculous it is to expect someone to change like that.
Nevertheless
the news washed over me. There are no words to describe the
feeling I had, except that I felt pretty odd about it all. After sulking around I realized I needed to do something, so I arranged
with my Finnish friend Lotta to come and visit
