Then I stood next to him and held out my hand for him to grab so we could walk side by side together, out of the park and back to our lives.
“I wish I had superpowers,” I mumbled as I pulled open the fold of the tablecloth to make sure Baby’s position had not shifted. She was sleeping peacefully. I sighed and smiled as Mr. Han took my other hand in his and squeezed it.
“You do, Ting Ting,” he said. “You already do.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book would not exist without the help of many, many people—some of whom lived the stories with me, some of whom supported my efforts to create them out of thin air, and others of whom weren’t part of my life in Shanghai or my life as a writer but had everything to do with hoisting me off the ground and propping me up so I could bring this book to life. To all of you listed below and to those I have missed but who know you belong here, I humbly bow in gratitude.
I’ll start with my Shanghai friends. I heap many apologies for all I’ve left out. It’s been a few years, and my memory—it’s an issue. Suzanne Freeman and Rick Cooper, you saved our lives countless times and brought much-needed perspective. Bart and Nora Salatka, we’re so lucky to call you both family and friends and for our Shanghai stories, such as the OG Mr. Tinsey, Mutton Roganjosh, the silver outfits (and matching eyebrows!), the pig face, and Wo zhu ni la du zi. Andy Tainton and Fiona Hewitt—our kid put your kid in a headlock. Then they switched places. Sonya and Stuart MacAusland—your hospitality held no bounds and you kicked my ass in squash. Josefin and Adam Ashe, Emma Longworth and Jonathan Herron, Gabi and Chantal Kool, Andrea Kennedy and Dane Chomorrow, Melanie and Lee Brantingham, Angela and Jeff MacDonald, Kathryn Ferb and William Silsby, Heidi Berry and Scott Shimizu—freaking hilarious doesn’t begin. Aisling and Geoff and your three amazing offspring—we’ve no doubt been friends for many lives. Katie Liu, best tutor EVER. Mr. Han and all ayis, WE MISS YOU. To all at Tiny Tots, Victoria Kindergarten, Mother Goose, and YCIS staff—thank you for a mostly wonderful and definitely unforgettable educational experience.
To my writing community: Marni Freedman, where do I even begin? Writing coach and savant extraordinaire, talent like yours is rare indeed. Feisty Writers—at this point you are more family than writing group, yet your input is how most things I create move forward (I’ll go in room order-ish at Barb’s): Marni Freedman, Nancy Villalobos, Nicola Ranson, Suzanne Spector, Barbara Thompson, Anastasia Zadeik, Phyllis Olins, Kimberly Joy, Donna Brown Agins, Tanya Pryputniewicz, Jen Laffler, Gina Simmons Schneider, KM McNeel, Elizabeth Eshoo, and Andrea Moser. To Marcy Mills, Janis Tan, Nancy Johnson, and Tracy Jean Jones, I can’t thank you and your wise editing eyes enough. To beta-readers Marijke McCandless, Becca Karpinski, Tomira Baca-Craig, Phyllis Olins, and Anastasia Zadeik, I am forever indebted. I am in awe of my She Writes publishing team, especially Brooke Warner, Shannon Green, Elisabeth Kauffman, Katherine Lloyd, and Rebecca Lown. Thank you to Andrea Kiliany Thatcher, Marissa Eigenbrood, and the team at Smith Publicity. Thank you to Hannah Baker for your voice (literally) and Emily Powers, Becky Parker Geist, and the team at Pro Audio Voices. Thank you to Bruce Fehlan at Barefoot Story for your tech help and website expertise.
To those on the inside: my husband Ed goes first. Thank you for giving me the time to write when we had three small humans at home. I don’t know how you did it, but you believed in me and supported this dream no matter what. Our kids, of course, were co-conspirators and thankfully only exhibited their best behavior when they were home with their dad. BAHAHA! But really, our kids are wonderful, and I am so delighted by these humans we created who seem, at this point, to have inherited only the best genes from us and none of the jacked up stuff. Well done, smalls! Thanks to Jay Jones, too, for being amazing and being you.
To Paul Chen, Tiffany Kao, and Ed Franqui for your guidance and help. To Francine Hardaway, who was with me at the start of this journey and has supported me all along. To my lifelong BFFs, Staci Stompoly, Wendy Mulvihill, Jen Sayre, and Lori Logan—I love you. Period, end of story.
Now to my family. Thank you, Dad and Kathy, I love you both and am so glad you found each other. Thank you to Aunt Susan and Uncle Jim for housing me and feeding me and gently calling me on my teenage angsty stuff, and to all of my wonderful aunts and uncles and cousins, whom I feel so lucky to have. Thank you especially to my brother, Tommy, who has always been by my side and is the best human I know.
Finally, thank you to my mom, Lucie, who left far too early and, in that, set my writing back in motion. When I was a young adult and just out of college, I would often call my mom to unload about some drama or another and she would say, “This sounds like great fodder!” At the time, this response didn’t always soothe me, but it’s possible that I now channel this sentiment more often than I should. This is all fodder somehow helps me see that life, in all of its wacky turns and occasional dark twists, is actually mostly good and often quite funny.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo credit: Andi Allison Photography
Lindsey Salatka is an author, ghostwriter, and editor. Her writing has been featured at BlogHer and in Shanghai Family Magazine, Urbanatomy Shanghai, and Shaking the Tree: Brazen. Short. Memoir. She is on the Advisory Board of the San Diego Writers Festival and serves as a judge for the Kids-Write! Children’s Writing Contest. Most nights you can find her curled up with her family or musing about life, love, and culture on her blog, fishheadology, or on Instagram (@mywhatlovelygillsyouhave). Lindsey lives in San Diego with her family.
SELECTED TITLES FROM SHE WRITES PRESS
She Writes Press is an independent publishing company
founded to serve women writers everywhere.
Visit us at www.shewritespress.com.
This is Mexico: Tales of Culture and Other Complications by Carol M. Merchasin. $16.95, 978-1-63152-962-7. Merchasin chronicles her attempts to understand Mexico, her adopted country, through improbable situations and small moments that keep the reader moving between laughter and tears.
Notes from the Bottom of the World by Suzanne Adam. $16.95, 978-1-63152-415-8. In this heartfelt collection of sixty-three personal essays, Adam considers how her American past and move to Chile have shaped her life and enriched her worldview, and explores with insight questions on aging, women’s roles, spiritual life, friendship, love, and writers who inspire.
Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces by Dorit Sasson. $17.95, 978-1-63152-035-8. When nineteen-year-old Dorit Sasson realized she had no choice but to distance herself from her neurotic, worrywart of a mother in order to become her own person, she volunteered for the Israel Defense Forces—and found her path to freedom.
Learning to Eat Along the Way by Margaret Bendet. $16.95, 978-1-63152-997-9. After interviewing an Indian holy man, newspaper reporter Margaret Bendet follows him in pursuit of enlightenment and ends up facing demons that were inside her all along.
Nothing But Blue by Diane Lowman. $16.95, 978-1-63152-402-8. In the summer of 1979, Diane Meyer Lowman, a nineteen-year-old Middlebury College student, embarked on a ten-week working trip aboard a German container ship with a mostly male crew. The voyage would forever change her perspective on the world—and her place in it.
Gap Year Girl by Marianne Bohr. $16.95, 978-1-63152-820-0. Thirty-plus years after first backpacking through Europe, Marianne Bohr and her husband leave their lives behind and take off on a yearlong quest for adventure.
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