Just Three Questions

I can usually find a connection with a new person I meet in just three questions. It does not matter where I am or who I meet. Tonight it was three questions at the maximum, but in some cases it was fewer.

We had the welcome cocktail party for Mah a Jongg week at Lyford. I have a big giant beginner group of students so many were new to me. One of the first women I met was from Connecticut. I asked her what town. It was Salisbury. I told her I grew up in Wilton, but went to school in Simsbury. She asked if I went to Westminster. I said, the other school, Ethel Walkers.

She said her sister went to Walkers. I asked how old her sister was. Turns out she is my age. Her sister was in my class, my friend May Herkert Bogdanovics. I could tell immediately they were sisters. Such a small world. Figured out in three questions.

I turned and met another woman. She told me her name was Jane Scott Hodges. She made sure I knew she went by Jane Scott. My friend Ruth E. said, “We’re southern, we know double names.” Jane Scott asked where I was from. Durham. “Oh do you know my sister-in-law Reneé?”

“Do I Know Reneé? Of course!” I did not follow up with, “I am Reneé’s most liberal friend.”

The next group of women I met were from Maryland, the same town where Suzanne is from and I spent many nights as a younger person.

Another woman came up and said, “I’m not here for class, but you taught me mah Jongg in Greensboro because of Lesly Tuck.” My friends are here to learn from you because of that. I didn’t even need to ask a question, she just told me the connection.

After the cocktail party we went to dinner. Ruth E. Brought two new friends who are coming to class tomorrow. Cathy, from Houston is friends with dear Lisa Mathis. And Melissa Barry’s is married to a guy from Kinston and knows all my Kinston friends. We spent half of Dinner discussing all the great people of Kinston.

If you ask the right questions I guarantee you will find a connection with each person you meet. It might not be as close as going to high school with their sister, but it will still be a connection somehow. The world is small. Look for the connections.