Sad news yesterday from Nancy, daughter of my friends Jim and Betty Wise, telling me that they had both died, within four days of each other.
I had known them for over forty years, from the day in 1980 when they stepped off a plane at Cardiff airport with 400 Americans, visiting Wales under the Friendship Force programme.
Jim had organised it and I was involved, helping find families in South Glamorgan to host them for a week.
The scheme had been unveiled by President Carter to encourage international friendship. Jim was the American organiser for many years and it is still operating.
It was the start of a marvellous friendship between Rosemary and I and Jim and Betty, with visits in the USA and Wales.
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| Big Pit, 1994 |
We had a trip down the Big Pit coal mine museum in Wales and a speedboat ride during a break in Cornwall when Robert came with us. In Iowa they took us to a German Hamish community town and to President Hoover’s presidential library and museum.
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| Looe, Cornwall, 1994 |
Although we met for a relatively short time over the years Jim and I kept in regular touch, with long emails discussing all sorts of subjects.
We had a lot in common. All four of us were the same age and had wide interests. Jim was an education head in Des Moines and Betty was secretary to the State’s finance minister at the Des Moines parliament. Their daughter Nancy was, like me and Robert, in public relations.
Jim and Betty had been living in a care home for the past few years.
Their death has left a gap in my life, I shall miss them both, my dear friends.
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