2006.03.05: March 5, 2006: Headlines: COS - Brazil: Sacramento Bee: Miriam Gray reconnects with a Peace Corps Volunteer named Charlotte Phillips she knew in Brazil 40 years years ago
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2006.03.05: March 5, 2006: Headlines: COS - Brazil: Sacramento Bee: Miriam Gray reconnects with a Peace Corps Volunteer named Charlotte Phillips she knew in Brazil 40 years years ago
Miriam Gray reconnects with a Peace Corps Volunteer named Charlotte Phillips she knew in Brazil 40 years years ago
"I've never felt such immediate rapport with another individual," says Miriam Gray, now 62, who lives in Sacramento and is a retired acting coach. "Charlotte's the only person I've instantly loved. One morning, I got a call for a private investigator saying Charlotte Phillips was looking for me," says Gray. "She knew I used to live in Davis, and she put an ad in the Davis paper looking for me. Everybody has that in their life, somebody they've lost touch with," says Gray. "To out of the blue get calls saying she was looking for me and to reconnect this way - it was a gift."
Miriam Gray reconnects with a Peace Corps Volunteer named Charlotte Phillips she knew in Brazil 40 years years ago
Anita Creamer: An instant connection
By Anita Creamer -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, March 5, 2006
Story appeared in Scene section, Page L2
Caption: Miriam Gray is shown with a wind chime that her friend Charlotte Phillips of Hawaii sent her from her travels abroad. Gray and Phillips met in 1966, lost touch after five years and were reconnected in September. Photo: Sacramento Bee/Autumn Cruz
Brazil 1966. A young woman named Miriam has flown from California to visit her fiancé, a Peace Corps volunteer. He's sick and has to return to the United States for treatment. But he encourages Miriam to stay and tour South America with another Peace Corps volunteer, a woman named Charlotte Phillips.
"I've never felt such immediate rapport with another individual," says Miriam Gray, now 62, who lives in Sacramento and is a retired acting coach. "Charlotte's the only person I've instantly loved."
She and Phillips stayed in touch for five years. Then life intervened: on Gray's end, a divorce and several moves. The last she heard, years ago, Phillips was living in Los Angeles.
The friends lost track of each other altogether.
Until September.
"One morning, I got a call for a private investigator saying Charlotte Phillips was looking for me," says Gray. "She knew I used to live in Davis, and she put an ad in the Davis paper looking for me. I got calls from other people who'd seen it, too."
Phillips, it turns out, is a travel writer living in Hawaii. When she retired from working full time, she decided it was time to find her long-lost friend, Miriam.
"We e-mail every day, sometimes several times a day," says Gray. "We talk on the phone once a week. That first phone call was just screaming and squealing like I was 22 again.
"It does take me back to being that age. It also gives me a lot of contentment. Things can return to you. Nothing's ever really lost."
Despite the passage of more than four decades since they traveled South America together, Gray says, they share similar values and similar views of the world.
"I often say she's the other me."
Gray and her husband plan to visit Hawaii in May to spend two weeks with Phillips.
"Everybody has that in their life, somebody they've lost touch with," says Gray. "To out of the blue get calls saying she was looking for me and to reconnect this way - it was a gift."
When this story was posted in March 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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| March 1, 1961: Keeping Kennedy's Promise On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy issues Executive Order #10924, establishing the Peace Corps as a new agency: "Life in the Peace Corps will not be easy. There will be no salary and allowances will be at a level sufficient only to maintain health and meet basic needs. Men and women will be expected to work and live alongside the nationals of the country in which they are stationed--doing the same work, eating the same food, talking the same language. But if the life will not be easy, it will be rich and satisfying. For every young American who participates in the Peace Corps--who works in a foreign land--will know that he or she is sharing in the great common task of bringing to man that decent way of life which is the foundation of freedom and a condition of peace. " |
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| Paid Vacations in the Third World? Retired diplomat Peter Rice has written a letter to the Wall Street Journal stating that Peace Corps "is really just a U.S. government program for paid vacations in the Third World." Director Vasquez has responded that "the small stipend volunteers receive during their two years of service is more than returned in the understanding fostered in communities throughout the world and here at home." What do RPCVs think? |
| RPCV admits to abuse while in Peace Corps Timothy Ronald Obert has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a minor in Costa Rica while serving there as a Peace Corps volunteer. "The Peace Corps has a zero tolerance policy for misconduct that violates the law or standards of conduct established by the Peace Corps," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. Could inadequate screening have been partly to blame? Mr. Obert's resume, which he had submitted to the Peace Corps in support of his application to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, showed that he had repeatedly sought and obtained positions working with underprivileged children. Read what RPCVs have to say about this case. |
| Why blurring the lines puts PCVs in danger When the National Call to Service legislation was amended to include Peace Corps in December of 2002, this country had not yet invaded Iraq and was not in prolonged military engagement in the Middle East, as it is now. Read the story of how one volunteer spent three years in captivity from 1976 to 1980 as the hostage of a insurrection group in Colombia in Joanne Marie Roll's op-ed on why this legislation may put soldier/PCVs in the same kind of danger. Latest: Read the ongoing dialog on the subject. |
| PC establishes awards for top Volunteers Gaddi H. Vasquez has established the Kennedy Service Awards to honor the hard work and service of two current Peace Corps Volunteers, two returned Peace Corps Volunteers, and two Peace Corps staff members. The award to currently serving volunteers will be based on a demonstration of impact, sustainability, creativity, and catalytic effect. Submit your nominations by December 9. |
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Story Source: Sacramento Bee
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Brazil
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Qui pourrait m'aider à retrouver une amie? perdue de vue depuis très longtemps. Ele s'appelle Jane Anderson née en 1954 à SACRAMENTO CA USA.
PLEASE!! will someone help Me?? I have a dear friend who is VERY ill, she will NOT recover. She has asked me for one favor. That is to find our friend Pasqualina(Patty) Torchia. Who relocated to Italy in the 1980's. Due to personal problems Patty was having. We had to end our friendship. But we never forgot Patty. When I learned how very ill my friend Wendy was. I knew I had to honor her request.I have contacted every group that I felt may be able to make this come true for Wendy.But all request has fallen on def ears. Or would be very costly. I will be honest.I have NO MONEY to offer. I will give my time on the computer or phone to help out anyway i can. I have contacted the International Red Cross, American Embassy in ROME. ITALIAN Geo. sites. 4 news papers in my state, 2 TV stations and even the mayor of the last known town in Italy. I did receive a e mail that was from the Italian white pages. That had Patty's name and possible address and phone#. But never any answer onthe phone. If I could just find out if this our patty or not. a birth date or age would really help. So I will close for now. If you are willing to help. REMEMBER i can not afford a costly amont. Thank you, Darlene Clark s-yankee@hotmail.com