"It has been amazing how she throws out a subject to us and we start to put down on paper a storehouse of memories," Hattie Lee Ellerbe, 77, wrote one week. "We get a chance to share with a small group of very interesting people things that have been locked in our memory boxes for many years."
Cooper is also writing a book about her grandmother, their relationship, and the little miracle it spawned. She's been able to piece together much, but not all, of Chiu's story.
When Mei Chiu's mother returned home that day without her baby daughter, her husband was furious. His sister, Mei Chiu's aunt, began to negotiate with the widow for the baby's safe return. But that took years, and by the time Mei Chiu returned to her biological home, her parents had passed away. Only her sister and brother were there to tell her all that had happened.
From what Cooper has learned, she knows Chiu was not harmed or treated as a servant, but neither was she loved.
"She was taken because she was pretty, but basically she was treated like an accessory," Cooper says, "like a piece of furniture."
When she speaks of the past, Chiu refers to her biological mother, whom she never really knew, as "My mother, the real one."
"Little things like that, like her word choice, touch me so much," Cooper says.
Cooper says her grandmother's story is about ethics and human nature, which are universal concerns.
"I've stopped worrying if parts of her life are missing between stories. What she has chosen to tell me are the episodes of the life that matter to her, the moments that contain her emotions, values and dreams. Whether they are exaggerated on purpose or by accident, they are her version of the truth, which is more real than fact itself."
Contact staff writer Dianna Marder at 215-854-4211 or dmarder@phillynews.com. Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/diannamarder.
Participation in The Best Day of My Life (So Far) is free. To learn more, e-mail benita@thebestdayofmylifesofar.com. To visit or join the class, call Estavia Jefferson at Philadelphia Senior Center, 215-546-5879. Read the blog at thebestdayofmylifesofar.blogspot.com.
