A Shot of Formosa - Taipei

My grandfather didn't make it. Overly confident that Chiang Kai-shek would soon return, he remained in Shanghai despite many friends, colleagues, and even his brother whom he'd followed to China after WWII, begging him to leave while he still could. As Mao's communists seized control of China in 1949, many foreigners escaped to safety in British Hong Kong. Others, along with most Chinese loyal to the Kuomintang, boarded boats in Fujian (my husband's home province) to cross the Taiwan Strait. My grandfather wasn't one of them. 

Not a bad place to rest

66 years later, sitting in the business class lounge at Beijing Capital Airport awaiting my nonstop* flight to Taipei, I thought about my grandfather. Smuggled onto a Russian frigate after slipping past the guards surrounding his home, I imagined the sorrow he felt catching his last glimpse of China from a small porthole as the Hong Kong bound ship disappeared into the night. He would never see China again, nor would  he ever forgive Chiang for abandoning them.