“Hong Kong Connections” was the intriguing title of Dorothy Moore’s illustrated talk to members of Halifax Aachen Society at their April meeting, held in the Maurice Jagger Centre.
Members were treated to far more than an ordinary travelogue about Dorothy’s 12 days in Hong Kong last year.
Dorothy explained that she and Ralph her late husband had added to their family of two daughters by adopting four more children. One of these, Ai-lien, had been found abandoned as a week-old baby in a doorway in Hong Kong. The two parts of her name mean Love and Lotus flower and although the Moores have always pronounced the name in the same way as the English name “Eileen”, it is, through its spelling, a link with the baby’s Hong Kong origins.
During the past couple of years Dorothy, her first two daughters and her third daughter Ai-lien had made plans to meet up in Hong Kong and visit the street where baby Ai-lien had been found. They had a wonderful time together – and even found the doorway at No. 23 – where the baby had been left. Photos were taken of the grown-up Ai-lien on the same spot. They also met Mr Man and his wife and family – he had been Ai-lien’s guardian before the adoption took place. There were many photos of places and trips around Hong Kong – with plenty of smiling faces – these four ladies do not often have a chance to meet up as Ai-lien now lives in the USA – and being together in Hong Kong, the place of Ai-lien’s birth, made their reunion so much sweeter.
Geoff Barnes, Publications Officer
