Mariko Yamada, Democrat for State Assembly

Every campaign has its great stories, and this one is no different. Three weeks ago, I got an email from a childhood friend whom I had not heard from for almost forty years. She had found me through my campaign web site.

Fatima Linda Collier Jackson and I were founders of the “Black Hand Club”, a loose association of girlfriends at Cole Junior High School in Denver in the early 60’s. I was the sole Asian American in the group.

Fatima is now Dr. Jackson, Professor of Biological Anthropology at the University of Maryland following years of work in Africa and raising six children with her husband, Dr. Bob Jackson, a Professor of Nutrition at U of M.

Through the wonders of the internet, Fatima and I have begun to catch-up on four decades of professional and personal life experiences, but it is uncanny how similar our world views are after all these years. Fatima, like me, believes that our growing up poor and in a predominantly African American neighborhood was our good fortune, because through the prism of poverty, our core values to work on behalf of the most vulnerable in our society were forged. It turns out both of our daughters reside in Falls Church, Virginia, and the two of them are now exchanging email and phone numbers.

Now that’s what I call bringing the generations together!