我给英国房东的第一封电子邮件
My First Email to My English Landlady and
Landlord
September 18, 2005
Dear Kate & Peter,
Good afternoon! How are you
these days? Thank you very much for your moving email. I have read
it several times today! Please forgive me for answering your email
so late and you will soon know the reason after you finish reading
it.
I
have been missing you since I left you and so far it has become an
important part of my daily life to tell my family and my friends
how kind you were to me, what happened to me in your lovely family.
Every smile in my face, every sparkle in my eyes while I’m talking
about you can betray my sweet memory about you, my being proud of
making your acquaintance, my happy times to be with you. All my
friends and colleagues couldn’t help paying their respect to you
after they heard my lively and interesting stories which happened
during my staying with you. Today, August 15 in our lunar calendar,
is our Mid-Autumn Festival (or Mooncake Festival), one of our most
important traditional festivals for appreciation of the round and
bright moon at night as well as for family reunion. All of my good
friends asked me to send their regards to you and wished you
happiness, good health, wealth and peace in mind.
The
journey went smoothly, and I arrived home on the evening of
September 11, safe and sound. One thing, however, worried me very
much when I was at home. It was my wife’s grandfather’s health.
He was seriously ill in bed and my wife and I had to take turns to
look after him. In the day time I had to give several hours’
lectures and at night I would make every effort to give him my
helping hand. To our deep sorrow, he still left us one night,
peacefully. How sad we were at that time! He had been very kind to
me as well as to my wife. Before I left for England, I was told
that he had been in very poor health but I had never thought that
he would have left us so soon. Now only my wife’s maternal
grandmother and mine are still alive. Both of them love me very
much and vice versa. We have planned to visit them once a month and
give them some more pocket money so that they can spend the rest of
their life happily and peacefully.
It
was only when all those dark clouds disappeared that I began to
feel released and to live a normal and quiet life as before. (You
see, I have been in bad mood in the past week.) Then I checked my
emails and found your email lying there for age. After I finished
reading it, my eyes were filled with happy tears and my heart with
enormous warmth. How thoughtful you are! How much you care for me!
How wonderful your diction was! How can I ever repay you for your
care, your affection, your generosity, your tolerance and your
understanding? To be honest, before I moved into your home, I had
never expected to be so lucky, to be accepted as such an intimate
family member, to be offered such wonderful meals, to get along so
well with an English family, to enjoy myself and relax in such a
marvelous way. Every time we had lessons in Churchill House School,
I would tell my classmates how pretty, attractive, humorous and
hospitable my hostess was, how handsome, well-built and
hard-working my host was. At the beginning, most of them wondered
if I had told the truth. As days passed, more and more stories
about you were going on and on. Their good and deep impression of
both of you began to sink in and they longed eagerly to find out
what both of you looked like. Finally the occasion came. On the
very parting day, all my classmates, sitting on the coach, were
deeply moved by what they saw. When they found my dearest Kate
standing in the sun, weeping and waving goodbye continuously to me,
they all said to me, enviously, “David, how lucky you are to have
stayed with such a kind English family! We are very jealous and we
wish we could also stay with them.” Yes, they are right. I
couldn’t be luckier and happier during my six weeks’ stay in your
home! Thank you, my dear Kate and my invincible partner Peter, for
all you have done for me in those unforgettable days! Your names
have already been written deep within my heart!
Yes,
my son and my wife love your gifts very much and they both send
their regards to you. In addition, I put the book which you offered
me in a very special place in my big bookshelf. Every time I stand
before the shelf gazing at the book, it will surely remind me of
those happy times at 39 Albert Road, Ramsgate, as well as the
interesting and considerate English couple. Thanks for the
memory!
All
the best and God bless the Queen!
Yours forever,
Dave