Every year Randi and I open our home to a college girl or two to live with us.  Thanks to a glitch in government bureaucracy, Joanna was our illegal alien from Poland.  She had flown home to Poland for Christmas, and some of the rules had changed starting with the New Year, preventing her from returning to the United States until April.  By then, it was too late into the semester to begin classes, so she began life guarding at the pool, something she’d always done.  Unfortunately, her student visa required her to enroll in classes within 60 days of entering the country or otherwise be in violation of her visa and become subject to deportation.  Joanna finally got her illegal status changed, but not without a trip back to Poland and still another visit to the American embassy.

I don’t know what we would have done without Joanna during that first year after Rachel came home from Guatemala.  Randi had somehow damaged both of her wrists, making childcare extreme difficult, and I’m not the greatest with a one-year-old, yet somehow we managed.  From baths, to feedings, to changing diapers, to preparing meals, Joanna was a lifesaver.  When something needed to be done, she got it done.

I never will forget the day she came home and told us about a guy who came up and asked if she had just gotten out of physics class.  “I don’t understand,” she said.  “He saw me coming out of the physic’s room.  What a stupid question!”

“Joanna,” we said.  “He was hitting on you.  He was attempting to start a conversation.”

The same thing happened one night after she had finished life guarding.  Some poor guy asked if she was done swimming.  “Yeah,” she said.  “Why do you think I’m headed for the locker-room?”  She didn’t have a clue.

Both of us can be very intimidating.  As such, she could get away with saying certain things to me that, if someone else had said them, I would have gotten more than a little upset.  I often slept on the couch because it was more comfortable.  One of Joanna’s favorite things to tell me was “Steve, you’d better be careful. Otherwise you will be sleeping on the couch tonight.  Oh, I forgot, you’re already sleeping on the couch!”  I don’t know why I ever put up with such abuse.

There was another occasion when she was cooking on the stove and I was trying to put something in the pan.  Without giving it a second thought, she looked at me and said, “WILL YOU STOP SHAKING!”  Now if anyone else had said that, I would have been come unglued, but for some reason, when Joanna said it, we just both cracked up laughing.

She came to visit us one weekend after we moved to Upland.  We had all said our goodnights and went off to bed.  I got up the next morning and saw Joanna’s bedroom door opened.  Apparently she hadn’t bothered locking her door, and sometime around 2:00 in the morning, Rachel got out of bed and made her way over to Joanna’s room.  There they were, together, sleeping on a twin size bed.

I get weepy when I think of how much Joanna helped us with Rachel that first year.  I think the world of her and love her dearly.  She got married yesterday, and although I missed the wedding, I did see her in early May.  Congratulations Asia!  You are one of the best!