Chapter 11: Finding a Roadmap

Congratulations. The letter I received from Rotary that changed my life. Photo of document taken from the author’s files.

The unbearable tension I was experiencing—that of being caught between two worlds—was suddenly broken on a late January day in 1988.

I had gone out for the mail.

Reaching into the mailbox at the end of the lane, I instantly felt the letter’s weight, the official look of the letter. I ripped it open. Seeing the first sentence, my stomach suddenly dropped, and then lurched upwards. Dizzy, I reached for the mailbox, then regained my bearings. 

I never believed I would win.

I read the first word of the letter, again and again.

“Congratulations.”

Finally, I read on. The letter came from the District Foundation Chairman, Alan Coleman, who lived at Ilford in Essex, England. Mr. Coleman wished to send me the finest of regards, he wrote, on behalf of the District Governor and all the London Rotary clubs. My name was right now before a certain Master Spencer Hoyles, the Scholar Coo…