"This was a photo that a friend took of Paul in our front yard on our fiftieth wedding anniversary. I would like to send it to the friend for sharing." She showed me the photo. In the photo, Paul was wearing big black glasses and a big smile. The way she placed the photo was weird. She had the photo hidden in a stack of papers in front of her desk, with the photo facing outside. " I don't want to see him, I will be in tears." She walked away from the desk and bent down to the floor to clean some stuff she took from the garage.

She is Mrs. Faith Becker, a neighbor who lives across the street. I just moved in the neighborhood to join my husband three months ago. Since then, whenever I get out of the car on the driveway after class, she waves at me from her house window. The window is just opposite of my garage.

I have been asking to her to tell me some stories of her. She would reply, "You want stories from an old woman?"

A woman's story is a reflection of the history. That is what I believe.

However, it was hard to tell Faith's story without telling Paul's story.

Mr. Paul Becker and Mrs. Faith Becker got married one year after the World War Two. At that time, they had been engaged for three years and known each other for more almost twenty years. Paul was one year younger than Faith. They came from the same school district. Paul had known Faith since 3rd grade. Faith had two sisters but no brother；Paul had two brothers but no sister. They had been writing birthday cards to each other since childhood. "If I could have a brother, I wish he was Paul," said Faith.

The friendship had sparkled into romance later. Faith always said: "Oh, look, how handsome Paul was!"
Paul was her husband, relative, friend, and hero. All of Faith's life revolved around Paul.

Paul worked his way through 2 1/2 years of credits at Marquette University. While attending Marquette University, he enlisted in the Eastern Platoon Leaders Class (the Marine Corps version of Officers Candidate Class) in 1940 at Illinois. He attended Basic School in 1941, was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and then was placed on activity duty in February 1942. After the battle of Okinawa and the end of the war, his duty continued in Tientsin, China until he was granted leave in February 1946. In the same year, Paul married Faith.

"During the war, we were separated. We couldn't see each other, so we wrote letters everyday. Although there was nonsense in the letters, it meant a lot to me, I knew he was alive. The war was terrible...." Faith remembered how it felt to live with war. Life in uncertainty was the reality to an officer's wife or girlfriend.

"I remembered one time that I had no idea what to write him, so I sent him gift for Thanksgiving." Faith recalled, "He loved cheese. I bought several heavy slices of cheese with different flavors. At the same time, I put my favorite popcorn in the package." When Paul got the package in China, it was almost Thanksgiving. But he did not want to eat them all at a time. He saved the popcorn for Christmas. That Christmas turned out to be a mess in the marine's kitchen. Paul and his friends had no idea about using the Chinese stove, with a big and high flame, a big package of the popcorn kernels only came out five popcorns. The kitchen was almost burned. "Paul said that was fun. He thanked me for giving him the gift and memory whenever we talked about it." Faith laughed happily.

After their marriage, Paul's work transferred him to California. They selected Los Altos as the location to purchase land and build a home. At that time, Los Altos was a big orchard. Foothill expressway, paralleling highway 280, was a railroad with two commuter trains going between San Jose and San Francisco. They just started their salad days of life. Their only daughter was only two years old. The thirteen residents in the same neighborhood were at about the same age and same financial situation. They would have block parties with any excuse to get together. The atmosphere was different from the busy life that current residents lead.

"Paul and I were from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The other families at the same court also came from other states. This was California. We wanted to make the neighborhood a big family." As long as there was Paul, every activity was interesting. Faith said, "Everybody liked him. He was just like a magnet."

Paul was very active. He was a charter member of the local church and an active member during the development and transformation of the "apricot orchard." During that time, he also served as President of the Men's Club. He cared about politics and the local development. He retired from the U.S.M.C.R. July 1, 1966 as a Colonel. Military Clubs, reunions, and traveling occupied all his time.
A three-week trip back to China was very important to Paul. Faith was with him. During the trip, revisiting Beijing, Tientsin and areas in China and duplicating photo poses taken in 1945 was a great source of amusement. By comparing the photos at different periods, they were amazed that forty years had passed. "It was like a traveling with time capsule," Faith recalled. "He loved China, and the people there. He wished he had more time to do something that would be helpful to people in China." Faith knows China's history quite well too.

They did not have any big trip after revisiting China. Ken suffered from high pressure and heart disease. Faith's colon was removed because of cancer. Her stomach was half cut years ago. She is very skinny. She is about 5'5" and weighs under 90 pounds.

"I have gone through five major operations in the past 15 years. I will never ever go see a doctor. They were trying to cut things away from my body." She does not have medicine, or vitamins. She smokes ten cigars a day, which is not allowed by the doctor. "I am old enough to do whatever I want to do." She is eighty-four years old now, combing her hair into a good-looking bum everyday by herself. She reads the newspaper every morning, and novels every afternoon with the TV turned on as a background music. Her desk is right facing a window that captures what happens in the neighborhood. She is the oldest and most respected lady in our court. I named her "queen of the court."

However, her life is simple. Living in a 21,500 square feet house, she never asks for a cleaning maid. She keeps a kitty as pet. She usually has two frozen waffles for breakfast, and a home-made sandwich for lunch. Sometimes she orders take out Chinese food for dinner. Her daughter cooks for her too.

"I was no longer cooking. A woman never retires, but a man does." She said, "Unless one is retired from kitchen one is not really retired."

But she complained about her daughter's cooking. "We have different taste. I don't like her seasoning." Faith shook her head. "It's hard to have two women in a house. She has her way of lifestyle while I want the home to be the same as it was."
"Ann grew up here and left the house. She was back after for her divorce." Faith worried for Ann, her daughter, who just turned out fifty years old.

"I don't need anyone to take care of me," Faith claimed, "Paul and I were traditional Catholic, after we got married, we had quarrel and conflicts. But we thought if there were not these differences, life would be so boring. How I love and miss him. If I was given another chance, I would still marry him. Oh, he was so handsome." Faith took one Paul's photo and looked at it with smiles. The photo was taken in the marines when Paul was only 23.

How young and how romantic. I thought.

The memories were inscribed into her mind forever. My thoughts went with her to the China trip, and pictured how our neighborhood looked in the old days. I understand a little bit more why she is always nice to me, the first Chinese resident ever since in this neighborhood.

I saw her putting ten pennies into a stack and taped together. "Paul and I usually gave treat-or-trick kids the pennies and candies. Kids were happy when they heard the sound of pennies dropping into their bags. This was also another way we spent our pennies." Faith said.

Faith did not celebrate the Halloween last year. Paul died one day before the Halloween. They had been married for 54 years and five months.

Paul has been dead for a year. Fay was heart-broken and busy during the past year. She found a lot of stuff that Paul left over in the garage, including new albums with plastic wraps, 26 pounds of coffee beans, a jar of candy, several traveler's suitcases, and some photos and etc. "I totally had no idea what he had stored in the garage. I knew he hated throwing things away. But I am also having hard time throwing them away. I am selfish to keep them… I should have given them to anyone in need."

Faith's life was around Paul even when Paul was dead. "I used to say to Paul, I would like to go ahead of you. I don't want to clean out the garage." Now Faith spends a lot of time cleaning the garage each day. Who knows Paul might have intended to keep Faith busy after his death, so he left behind a lot of stuff in the garage for Faith to dig and refresh her memory.

This was the love they gave to each other - Thank you for remembering me.

(For privacy, Faith, Paul, and Ann are pseudo names.)