IT'S A SMALL WORLD--Linda Grasser

by Danna Shirley

My husband, Ron, was from Alabama but we met in California where I was born and raised. I was in the Shirley family for several years before my parents finally met my husband’s parents and Ron’s grandfather, Daddy Jack, who lived with them at the time.

My father, Pa, was born in Oklahoma. When he met Daddy Jack and they began to talk, as people do, they discovered that Daddy Jack knew Pa’s uncle. Evidently, he had left Oklahoma years before and the family had not heard from him again. Discovering that his uncle had settled in Alabama was the end of a lifetime of unanswered questions.

It’s a small world!

            Ron and I were stationed in the Philippines in 1977. I made friends with a few Navy wives, one of whom was Linda Grasser. She was with me when I had my son, Russ, because Ron was in the hospital several hours away. As sometimes happens, we lost track of each other when I returned to the states.

            By 1981 Ron was out of the Navy and employed as a civilian at the shipyard in Pascagoula, MS. We were renting a house on Glen Eagles in Ocean Springs.  Russ was in kindergarten for three hours every morning but taking him and going home was quite a distance so I usually killed some time having breakfast and then hanging out at the local K-Mart until time to pick him up.

            In those days the aisles in K-Mart were not piled high above the customer’ head so you could look across the store and see other shoppers. That’s what I was doing this particular morning when I spied the back of a blond head that looked familiar across the store. Could it possibly be Linda from the Philippines right here in South Mississippi?

            I approached and touched her arm. She turned and looked at me and we both screamed at the same time, hugged and jumped up and down, and embarrassed ourselves among the other customers. Her husband had just been stationed at the Navy base in Pascagoula. I asked where they were living and she said, “Glen Eagles.” I screamed again. She lived just five doors down from me.

It’s a small world!

           I also met a Susan in the Philippines who knew a friend of my sister in high school in California. Paula and Francine were in the same grade and after graduation Francine married and moved to the east coast where she met Susan. After the usual get-acquainted conversation Susan learned I was from the same area in California where her friend Francine was from. Back and forth, back and forth we went until we discovered that Francine was one of my sister’s good friends.

           Yes, it’s a small world after all!