Letters to the Editor | Trying to know Dad
Trying to know Dad
I read with interest Michael Ko's story about his dad in the Pacific Northwest magazine ("The Heart of It," June 17).
He stated that he had "sadness and regret — that I didn't know my father as well as I should have," and he mentioned his "Korean male detachment." He could have been talking about me and my father, though I am a woman 68 years old whose father was from Mexico.
My father, too, had that male detachment that I guess many men have when they are uprooted from their home countries and have to learn a new language and new societal attitudes. My husband's stepfather was also that way, and he was from the Philippines. They were honest, hard-working men, and now in our seniority, we feel great regret that we were so involved in our lives that we didn't get to know them better, their hopes and their dreams.
My father has been gone for more years than Michael is old (he died in 1966), and I still feel those pangs of "sadness and regret." I am doing my father's family tree; it is tedious work (I have traced his paternal line back to the early 1600s); I want to get to "know" him, his ancestors, the history of the place where he was born.
Michael's article is a real tribute to his dad and all dads like him, really. He captured our feelings. We're pleased that there are still young people who honor their elders, and I hope that he will some day publish his father's writings in English.
— Emilie Garcia, Port Orchard
Dad's story resonates
I loved Michael Ko's story about his dad. So heartfelt, full of emotion, sad and insightful. A bittersweet tribute to a man who lived a worthwhile life.
Michael Ko showed how the children of the next generation admire and yet do not fully understand their parents who have taken on the harrowing life of the emigrant.
My mother and father came from Italy, and Michael's story resonated within me, even though our cultures are dissimilar. He told the universal story of children of emigrants, who hang on the bridge of two cultures, never quite crossing into one or the other.
Michael is expressing his grief at losing his father, and I imagine that some of his pain was healed through writing this memoir.
I'm waiting to read more. Michael, your simple, clear way of expressing yourself would serve you well in writing in other areas besides sports.
— Elizabeth Desimone, Seattle
Flamingoes go Alaskan
Let us not fear extinction of "phoenicopteris ruber plasticus" (Domestic Goddess, July 8). There is hope in the large colony of pink flamingoes on a small island in Peril Strait in Alaska. They are tended by the crews of the Alaska Ferries.
— Sue Donaldson, La Conner
Send letters to the editor to Pacific Northwest magazine, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111, or e-mail pacificnw@seattletimes.com. Include a telephone number for verification.
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