*I was very depressed. It is indeed difficult to hold onto one's faith and a woman when one is out of work and down and out and not knowing what the future may hold. I was then going through another crisis of intimacy and betrayal. Mydea and I was on the outs.

 Before leaving Monrovia, Mydea had problems on two fronts, both personal and political. Both her mother and father died six months apart in 1979. Married in 1977, her husband Frances Tuan Karpeh divorced her and then went to court to obtain custody of her son. The court granted the father custody of the boy at age seven. In 1985 she was arrested by the Doe regime for "sedition," suggesting that she was involved in attempts to overthrow the government. In Washington, D.C., she stayed with a cousin, worked as a bank teller and on the weekend as a maid, cleaning houses and polishing silver. She had come down in the world. In Liberia, Mydea owned her own home, had several cars, including a chauffeur; servants, a farm of 150 acres that produced rubber, cocoa, and vegetables. Abandoning her country all of that was lost.

Dr. Samuel Banks facilitated her employment with Baltimore public schools. From 1988 to 1990, Mydea took courses at Coppin State to qualify as a permanent teacher. Mydea continues with the public schools as a Special Education coordinator. Her son Tuan will become a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park in 2002 in sports medicine. Neither, I suspect, has any intent to return to war-ravaged Liberia. I sympathized greatly with her plight and assisted as much as was in my means and power. Most of all, she earned my respect by what she has been able to achieve by hard work and perseverance. [See commentary at Letter 55]