I was standing on the corner of 60 Isledon Road waiting for the taxi to arrive. We had to take a taxi to get to Heathrow because of our bags. It was just too difficult to carry them, or roll them, to the Tube at 4:00 AM in the morning through the suburbs of London. At least we could leave later because it was a taxi. So, here I was standing on an island with a bag hoping that the taxi driver would come.
60 Isledon Road was the home of the Isledon Arms, a hotel that was in the middle of a reconstruction project. Unfortunately, they hadn’t yet put up the sign for the hotel so it looked like a semi-abandoned building. They did, however, write the name with a magic marker on the door bell . . with letters about a quarter inch high. I was sure the taxi driver wouldn’t be able to see it since I couldn’t see it from about a foot away. In addition, it was technically not on Isledon Road. But, that’s a long story too. But, that’s why I was standing on a concrete island in the middle of the night, in the middle of London.
We arranged for the taxi to be there at 5:20 AM, and now it was 5:25 AM. I was trying to remember the number of times I have stood on a street corner hoping for something good to happen. Somehow it always seemed to work out, but it still worried me.
It was now 5:30 AM and I was trying to think of a way to blame this on Nancy when I saw the lights of the silver Mercedes E300 blink at us. We were saved. It was Lucien Simion.
Not a tall man, but with broad shoulders and a stocky build. He had a cherubic face and a big smile. He said he tried to call us several times . . unfortunately, the phones in England don’t route correctly or in a timely way. We actually received the call about 10 minutes into the trip to Heathrow.
Lucien told us about going to college in Romania and getting his master’s degree in law. He decided to leave Romania because the salaries were very poor in comparison, ‘’about ten times less than in England’’ and the expenses for housing and food were about the same as in England. I tried to calculate ten times less than $10,000 per month. Unfortunately, my math isn’t what it used to be. It seemed like it was something less than $1, which probably indicates that I have forgotten the bulk of my math. It must have come from the dimunition of my personal computing power, which must have come from a ten times loss of my brain cells. However, less than 1 cell does seem unlikely.
Lucien, however, did seem to have a lot of personal computing power. He talked about England and his hopes for a better life. His willingness to do anything to get that better life seemed just what the United States was based on . . and we should be welcoming.
Immigrants that want to improve themselves and find a country that supports innovation and hard work are what we were and should be now. I thought this was where we all came from. I thought this was the reason people came to the United States. I thought this was the land of opportunity where people came to make a better life for themselves and their families.
So, the opportunity to meet and talk with Lucien brought me back to the election which is coming up. I hope the 51% show up. And, I hope Lucien can make it over and do what all of our families have done for the past 400 years.