Do you know?

This article is being written at 2.30 am on Friday, March 17th. Unfortunately for it, it will not see the light of day until April 30, 2006, but that is all my fault.

Ideas have a nasty habit of coming into my head at any odd time that suits them, and I have the nasty habit of sitting down (it very often involves, as it does on this occasion, “getting up” and sitting down) to record them immediately, but as I already have several articles on the production line, this must wait its turn for publication.

I attended a delightful cocktail party at the residence of the High Commissioner for Canada to Trinidad and Tobago, and it is a conversation there that sparked this article.

Who is the High Commissioner for Canada to Trinidad and Tobago? According to the invitation that I received he is Mr Howard Strauss who joined Foreign Affairs Canada in 1975. “He has served abroad in Ghana, Cuba, New York (Representative of Canada to the Sixth Committee of the UN) and Nigeria.

He served as High Commissioner for Canada to Nigeria from 2001 to 2004. In 2005, he was appointed High Commissioner for Canada to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He has also served as Vice-President of the International Seabed Authority.

He has written and spoken on a broad range of international issues. He is married to Donna Strauss and they have four children.”That is who the High Commissioner for Canada to Trinidad and Tobago is.

Joint host of the cocktail party was Ted Gerrard. Who is Ted Gerrard? He is the Vice-President (External) of the University of Western Ontario, and the reception was for Western alumni and friends.

I am a Western alumna ‘58, and I attended the function accompanied by my son, Neil. As we arrived at the official residence of the High Commissioner for Canada at 5 Golf Course Road, Fairways, Maraval, Neil suggested that I stand in the light by the guard’s hut while he parked the car. There I received a pleasant surprise.

“How are you, Mrs Giuseppi?” exclaimed the guard. “I read your articles all the time.”

“Hmm!” thought I. “At least, he knew who I was. No identity crisis there.”

Let me cut a long story short. I spent a lot of time that evening with an alumna of ’49 — Mrs Mariko Abdulah. We were joined by Ms Grace Talma. Who is Grace Talma? Who doesn’t know who Grace Talma is?

Someone whom I did not know approached our group. “Are you Neil’s mother?” he asked.

I set the record in its true perspective. “Neil is my son,” I acknowledged.

And then Mrs Abdulah chimed in. “For years,” she said, “I have been ‘the Bishop’s wife.’ Then I became ‘David Abdulah’s mother,’ but when they started to call me the mother of my third son, Geoffrey, I put a stop to that. I have my own identity. I am Mariko Abdulah.”

I liked that. A woman after my own heart!

Who are you?