He was common-law husband for almost 20 years of a Thai woman who had lied to him about everything from the beginning. Examples: she couldn’t acknowledge her oldest son – it would have made her own claim of age an obvious lie – so for many years he was upset about a healthy brother-sister relationship, since he never accepted they were brother and sister. I met those children’s father, who my friend thought had been killed in a motorcycle accident. The list of lies goes on and on, and gets much worse than this. My friend spoke zero Thai, and none of his village acquaintances spoke English except his wife and her daughter. My friend once reported an alleged conversation with a hitman…
After my friend’s death, his younger brother came to the village to live with his “sister-in-law” and he died there under slightly suspicious circumstances.
Some of my friend’s tragic stories are also amusing. He broke his leg fleeing in the dark from a motorcycle driver who he feared had criminal intent. This same motorcycle driver then rushed my friend to the hospital in time to avoid amputation.
A story that wouldn’t make the list but seemed quite poignant to me was the Sadie Hawkins’ Day dance at high school where the chief cheerleader invited the class rebel. Chief cheerleader rented a gown, rented a limo, (rented a hotel room?); class rebel smoked dope and didn’t bother to show. (I was smoking dope with him when he told me this story about 30 years later, after running into that woman by chance.)
I wouldn’t be writing this if he were still alive and, given the permanency of webs and Googling, am still reluctant to write any more than this.