Like that other redoubtable Burmese woman who lived mostly overseas, Daw (Ms) Than E-Fend,
I was very privileged to know her.
I
met her via email but never in person, when a lawyer at the Foundry
Gallery whose wife had taken her cooking class in Florence gave me her
address. That lawyer and I were both artist members of the Foundry
Gallery.
Like Aunty Dora, she also never spoke of her private life.
Nevertheless, she was a role model in reinventing herself and her life in exile.
Also,and this is very important I think, she's the only woman who told that eff-ing dictator to eff-off.
I
saw her in the chauffeured car driving N to the airport, sitting alone
in the backseat, recognizing her by her distinctive hair style, the day
she left him for good.
Our Inst of Ecos. bordered on Prome Road, and I was driving myself to work.
I
don't remember if it was this time or another time when I pulled to a
stop beside the road, and the MI (Military Intel) stuck his head out and
shouted at me, "Don't stop, keep driving slowly."
Ah, those times in the mid-1970s.
I also remember this photo above.
She must be cooking Florentine food in the afterlife.
She was a gutsy woman.
Not like the others that he married. As for him--
kmk
1-14-2023
