The "Faces of Strangers: #39" Story

Angie

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished our last evening meal on our vacation to the island of Puerto Rico.  Our waitress came to our table to take the dishes and I asked about the ring I noticed on her left hand.  Seems that she is engaged to be married in hopefully a year and the question I posed was the beginning of a lengthy conservation Carol and I, along with our traveling friends Jerry and Just Sue, had with our waitress Angie.  Angie was born and raised in Puerto Rico which we at first found hard to believe since she is so fair skinned.  She gave us a history of her background and told us her mother is dark skinned, but a great-great grandmother had fair skin and she told us she looks much like that woman.  We found out that her fiancé is a baseball pitcher who was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays team a few years ago.  He played several years in the minor leagues, but when he became engaged to her he dropped out of professional baseball in the states and  returned to Puerto Rico.  He still plays baseball for a team in Puerto Rico as well as playing softball.  We told Angie that she spoke English remarkably well and she said that she gets plenty of practice while on the job of waiting on tables.  She went to public schools on the island and they begin learning English in third grade.  She told us that some learn well, such as her, while others don't, leading to many using primarily Spanish.  This young woman talked to us about the problems they have with their government.  She told us about the Governor, who lives at the Governor's Palace in Old San Juan, having part of the Old San Juan historical wall power washed which took away years and years of history.  She said he should never have done what he did.  This young lady, who loves her job working for Intercontinental San Juan, is a great ambassador for the island of Puerto Rico and is also a fantastic waitress. We all congratulated her on her engagement and wished her well in her upcoming marriage.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.