Chapter IV - AND THEN WE WERE FOUR

“Patricia, there is a guy with a heavy accent on the phone for you, I think it is him” “Hi Nino, how are you?“ “Good, what are you doing?” “Oh, just hanging out with my sisters” “Why don’t you and your children come to live here in Holland?” “You really want that?”

YES !! BYE!

It was the coldest and rainiest July of the century and there they were, this beautiful independent lady who seemed to know exactly what she was doing, and her daughters, seven thousand kilometers from home. After they slept the jetlag off they came to have dinner at my restaurant. The girls were dressed up for dinner in their prettiest dresses and they ordered their own dinners, carefully making their choices. I was amazed to see a seven and nine-year-old ordering such fancy dishes and enjoying them like little ladies.

WE ARE GOING TO LIVE IN EUROPE!

Patricia phoned me the next day worried big time and said “I don’t think we can stay here, It is so expensive, I went to buy some sweaters for the children because of the cold weather and they were like three hundred guilders each!” “Holy shit, where did you go?“ “I think the name was PeeCee Hoeftstraat” “Haha, P.C. Hooftstraat, that is our 5th Avenue, really the most expensive street in town, you don’t go there shopping for kids' sweaters”.

The next day I took them to a nice department store to buy jeans, and that was that! No other obstacles to take. They were exploring the country and me like one big adventure and I was trying to figure out how to behave, suddenly having two daughters.

They taught me about Christmas and who Dr. Seuss and the Grinch was, about Pizza Hut, how to make a good potato salad but most of all .........how to become a family.

to be continued...........