Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

The hardest choices in life aren't between what's right and what's wrong but between what's right and what's best.

I had my chance.' He said it, retiring from a lifetime of wanting. 'I had my chance, and sometimes in life, there are no second chances. You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward.

He'd do what he always did, find the sweet among the bitter.

I try not to live in the past...but...sometimes the past lives in me

Henry was learning that time apart has a way of creating distance- more than mountains and time zone separating them. Real distance, the kind that makes you ache and stop wondering. Longing so bad that it begins to hurt to care so much.

He'd learned long ago: perfection isn't what families are all about.

But choosing to lovingly care for her was like steering a plane into a mountain as gently as possible. The crash is imminent; it's how you spend your time on the way down that counts.

I think I get it now. It doesn't matter how nice home is--it just matters that it feels like home.

It reminded him that time was short, but that beautiful endings could still be found at the end of cold, dreary days.

Like so many things Henry had wanted in life -- like his father, his marriage, his life -- it had arrived a little damaged. Imperfect. But he didn't care, this was all he'd wanted. Something to hope for, and he'd found it. It didn't matter what condition it was in.

Henry, this isn't about us. I mean it is, but they don't define you by the button you wear. They define you by what you do, by what your actions say about you. And coming here, despite your parents, says a lot to them- and me. And they're Americans first. They don't see you as the enemy. They see you as a person.

After a lifetime of nods, frowns and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand.

A young nurse, someone new whom he didn't recognise, came up to Henry and patted him on the arm. "Are you a friend or a family member?" She whispered the question in his ear, trying not to disturb Sheldon. The question hung there like a beautiful chord, ringing in the air. Henry was Chinese, Sheldon obviously wasn't. They looked nothing alike. Nothing at all. "I'm distant family," Henry said.

So Henry found himself stepping off the bus three stops early and wandering over to the Panama Hotel, a place between worlds when he was a child, a place between times now that he was a grown man.

Loyalty. We're still loyal to the United States of America. Why? Because we too are Americans. We don't agree, but we will show our loyalty by our obedience.

The more Henry though about the shabby old knickknacks, the forgotten treasures, the more he wondered if his own broken heart might be found in there, hidden among the unclaimed possessions of another time. Boarded up in the basement of a condemned hotel. Lost, but never forgotten.

Good Morning, Henry. How's it feel to be a prisoner for a day?' Henry looked at Keiko. 'Best day of my life.' Keiko found her smile all over again.

I am what you made me, Father.

I try not to live in the past, he thought, but who knows, sometimes the past lives in me.

Henry looked up and down the empty avenue—no cars or trucks anywhere. No bicycles. No paperboys. No fruit sellers or fish buyers. No flower carts or noodle stands. The streets were vacant, empty—the way he felt inside. There was no one left.

It didn’t matter. He’d learned long ago: perfection isn’t what families are all about.

Henry handed the record to his old friend, who draped it across his chest. His eyes closed as if he were listening to the music play somewhere,sometime long ago.

Talking to strangers sounded like talking to no one, which Henry had some firsthand experience in- in real life. It was lonely. Almost as lonely as Lake View Cemetery, where he'd buried Ethel.

The waitress brought a fresh pot of tea, and Marty refilled his father’s cup and poured a cup for Samantha. Henry in turn filled Marty’s. It was a tradition Henry cherished—never filling your own cup, always filling that of someone else, who would return the favor.

People relations is hard business. Hard to keep that going.

-Kuinka kauan sinä odotat minua? -Niin kauan kuin on tarvis. En välitä siitä mitä isäni sanoo. -Entä jos joudun olemaan täällä, kunnes tulen vanhaksi ja hiukseni harmaantuvat? -Sitten tuon sinulle kävelykepin