An Unexpected Welcome

Walking into the apartment where I was to begin teaching English to Karen refugees, the first thing I noticed in the sparsely appointed room was a blue patterned tablecloth. These students had come to Hartford from Burma via the refugee camps in Thailand. The tablecloth had come from Brittany, France. How did the two meet?

The tablecloth was a bright spot in an apartment furnished with donated furniture. Handmade posters on the wall: ‘Talk English!’ said one. A pleather couch and a row of wooden chairs were waiting for me and for the few students in this first class. Everyone was ready and waiting nervously for the class to start. A reading from John 5:30 [“I can do nothing on my own…”] was my introduction to this eight week series of conversational English lessons.

A little fabric store somewhere in Brittany, outside the Fine Arts Museum was where we bought the tablecloth. The bright blue of the background and the yellow, white and red figures holding hands and circling the border caught our attention. I don’t remember what it cost but it was a happy reminder of a beautiful trip. And a reminder of a great life when we were together before my wife’s untimely death. It wasn’t so important then as a memento or later when I broke up the house and moved to a retirement community.

That day a circle became complete. This donation to the church refugee ‘housewarming day’ evolved into a sign of rebirth, a sign of a higher power’s plan for my life. What had been a tourist purchase, basically unused in our busy lives, became part of the life of another family. It now had a new life and so did I. I realize how true my reading was for ‘I cannot do anything on my own’.