10/8/2008 - Forty years later, she still calls her 'mom'
By Nancy Richardson
for the Journal-News
It may not be unusual for a daughter to come for a visit with her mother, especially if a class reunion is being celebrated.
Evelyn Hinton, however, who lives on the shores of Lake Glenn Shoals, can boast a special mother-daughter visit the past few weeks. Her “daughter,” Lysee Lopez, traveled all the way from her hometown of Bereira, the capital of Colombia, South America, to spend time with Evelyn and visit with classmates at her 40th class reunion. Lysee was an American Field Service exchange student back in 1967-68 and lived with Evelyn Hinton and her husband, Dale, now deceased, in their Nokomis home on East Union Street.
The Hintons’ daughter, Shirley, was in the same class as Lysee. One son, Roy, was older, while another, David, was a freshman at Nokomis High School. Lysee recalls, “David used to tease me, just like his sisters. I never had a problem with it.
She was part of the family, according to Evelyn. “When she first got here, I told her she could call me Evelyn or mom, whatever she was comfortable with.”
Lysee, whose own mother died the year before she traveled to the United States, told Evelyn, “I think I need a mother at this point in my life,” and Evelyn has been “mom” ever since.
“She was so similar to my mother in many ways,” Lysee said. ” They both were interested in art pieces, especially things made of wood, and the way they thought was so much alike, it was easy to call her mom.”
The feeling is mutual. Evelyn and her family had such a good experience with Lysee, they hosted two more exchange students in the years following.
One girl, Christina Bogni, was from Argentina. Later on, after their own children were gone, Evelyn said, “We started feeling lonely, so we requested another student, this time one in college. We were blessed with Raymi Oshiba from Nigeria. She came and spent weekends and holidays with us.”
She does still hear from both women, although not as frequently as from Lysee.
“My husband and I were able to travel to South America in 1983. We visited Lysee and her family and traveled to Argentina to see Christina, as well. We had a wonderful time.”
Unfortunately, Mr. Hinton died a few years later at the age of 56, and Evelyn has not returned to South America, although Lysee keeps encouraging her.
“She needs to come and spend a long time with us. All three of my girls love her, as do my sisters,” said Lysee.
Lysee’s Family
Her oldest daughter, Carolina, has a master’s in international business and will be traveling to France soon. Her middle daughter, Vanessa, also has a master’s degree. The youngest, Erica,who also has a master’s degree, plans to continue her studies in Germany.
“They are all professionals, so they are not married yet, and I don’t know when I’ll have any grandbabies. They are so busy,” Lysee joked.
The women live in Medellin, the largest city in Colombia. It is located in the coffee axis and is about 200 miles from Lysee and her husband’s home.
Her husband, Gonzalo, is retired. He hasn’t joined her or the girls on any of their trips to the states as he doesn’t care to travel. Even so, Evelyn has had plenty of Lopez family visitors over the years.
“I’ve had two of the girls stay here, along with one of Lysee’s sisters and her cousins. Lysee’s niece, Monica, stayed with me three months,” said Evelyn.
Culture Shock
Lysee recalls her first few months of living in Nokomis. “I loved being there, but I didn’t care for the size of the town. Several times when I was going to be late for school, I wanted to call a taxi. I couldn’t get used to a town not having a taxi,” she said.
The food was different from what she was used to, but she loved nearly everything she tried. She also got to experience farming Illinois style.
“I was so excited to see the machine that milked the cows. The farm machinery was so different from what we had in South America. I did miss the mountains, though. That was a big change for me.”
Evelyn said, “Dale used to laugh because Lysee was so afraid of tornadoes. She knew Illinois was located in tornado alley. He would ask how she could worry about that when her own homeland had earthquakes to worry about.”
Her language was not a huge barrier, but some phrases did not translate as well as others.
Lysee recalls, “After I had been here for a few weeks, the phone rang. Mom and dad were not home and the other kids were at practice for sports. I answered the phone and someone asked ‘Who is this?’ I replied ‘I don’t know.’ The caller asked me the same thing again, so I tried to pronounce my words more clearly, ‘I don’t know.’ “
After another try, the caller finally hung up. Lysee understood the caller to be asking if she knew who was calling, not who was answering. She laughed, “I didn’t understand how he thought I could guess who was on the phone.”
Through The Years
She has been back many times to visit her American home. Last July, she had to travel to Boston University for a symposium as part of her job. She has been teaching English at an institute for learning for 20 years.
“I came to see mom after I left Boston. I just had to be here. I couldn’t be in the United States and not see her,” she said.
Her visit this time was prompted by the NHS Class of 1968 40th reunion, held Sept. 20 at Oak Terrace in Pana. She still keeps up with several of her classmates, especially her American sister, Shirley (Hinton) Patton of Maryville and Juanita Wright of Chicago, formerly of Fillmore.
“My experience here was just a blessing,” Lysee said, “it was awesome. My family was so patient and nice.”
Evidently Lysee’s good experience made an impression on her own daughter, Carolina. She also entered the exchange student program while in high school and stayed with the family of Evelyn’s oldest son, Roy, out in Colorado.
Lysee hopes to talk “mom” into paying a visit soon to see all of her Lopez family fans in South America.
If Evelyn and Lysee are an example, then “family” must translate well, no matter which language it is.
To view the original article, please click here.
 |
Printer Friendly |
