Two days ago, June 17, Paul and I went to the Santa Cruz Wharf to meet my schoolmate Michael Lu for lunch. At 11:30 a.m., it was busy inside Riva Fish House, partly because of a sudden heat wave in the Bay Area, partly because of the COVID-19 restrictions being lifted in California two days previously. Our thirty minutes' wait list period was mercifully spared, for Michael had already been inside the restaurant to secure the table. He called my cell phone to warn us, but it was buried and muffled in my purse. Deservedly, I was downgraded to the lowest caste of those who do not use the cell often in our group WeChat.
I have not seen Michael since our graduation from Fudan in 1982. He has really changed, establishing himself from a news reporter to a successful family law lawyer. After a decades-long legal career and raising a family of four, he has sold his law firm and transitioned to a final retirement. Unlike some schoolmates who were selected by the university authorities to go to Cambridge or Harvard, Michael started from scratch by putting himself through law school, and set up his own practice in the state of Maryland.
Prior to out meeting, Michael always struck me as a little too self-satisfied. But, in person, he is sincere and soft spoken, quickly winning Paul's heart. Without any reservations, the quiet Paul readily narrated his own legal success with navigating through the troublesome INS for our two family members.
Owing to either his profession or personality, Michael is well-informed of the lives and achievements of our schoolmates of '77 and '78 in the Foreign Languages Department. It seems that everyone has had a go after graduation, either as top academies, or as ordinary professionals. The university equipped us well with its fame and quality teaching. Now we are facing the final equalizer: retirement and eternity. A brave new world!
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