June 11 is special to me now for another reason beyond the date of DeForest Kelley’s passing.

Last year Tia in Russia contacted me on this date to tell me she had just finished reading DeForest Kelley Up Close and Personal and loved it

Her letter was so touching and poignant that we began a conversation which segued, over time, to becoming frequent video chats. I think we have talked, on average, about every two weeks for the past year. She has become a delightful part of my life.

Tia (aka Tina; her full first name is Kristina, like mine, but mine ends in “e”) frequently joins EVER NEW to watch and listen and to occasionally chime in on our conversations (in written form). I’m hoping to convince her to come on as a special guest sometime to tell us her story about how she became a Star Trek (and especially a DeForest Kelley) fan. Her English has evolved spectacularly during the time we’ve been in video chat contact, so I hope she will agree to become an on-air featured guest at some point.

I introduced Tia to Thorsten Walch (who translated my first De Book — named above — into German) and she introduced me recently to Samoel Black (another DElightful individual), so we’re building new Kelley alliances across the globe.

Our chats usually last about two hours 

At first, Tia was hesitant to try to speak English.  In fact, she confessed to me that a friend had translated what she wanted to tell me from Russian into English so that nothing she intended to convey in that introductory missive could be misinterpreted. Her friend’s translation rocked my world. Tia didn’t expect me to even respond. She just wanted me to know how deeply the book affected her and that she feels, now, as if she has truly met DeForest and Carolyn Kelley. (My aim in writing the book to begin with!)

Tia told me she had taken the entire book and translated it to Russian so she could read it after a friend recommended it to her. (OK, that’s seriously impressive, even if she used Google translation. It had to have taken her weeks, if not months, to do that. I owe her friend a HUGE thank you for his recommendation!)

To make a long story short, Tia has become very dear to me. And because she never expected a reply, when she got one, she was overwhelmed and wrote again to thank me for responding. (How could I not respond to the efforts she had gone to in order to read my book?!) That’s all it took.  I “adopted” her! She is a lovely person who is blossoming before my eyes. She is more self-assured, great company, and I hope to high heaven that someday before I die our two countries will set aside their differences so Tia and I can meet and spend some actual time together.

When nations stop rattling sabers, it can happen. And unless we stop rattling them, our survival as a species will be short-lived. Tia and I know that most of our citizens in both nations want to live in peace. That’s the ethos of Star Trek (and DeForest Kelley) and we’re dedicated to helping foster the kinds of relationships that bring that day closer.

HAPPY REASONS TO REMEMBER JUNE 11 & NOVEMBER 22

So, now I have a HAPPY reason to remember June 11th. It is no longer exclusively (in my mind) the day DeForest Kelley died; it has become the day I met Tia, too.  (A similar thing happened when my niece Casey Hope McNiven was born on November 20th. It overlaid the sadness I felt every year before that, since that tragic November day in 1963 when JFK was assassinated.)

HAPPY ANIVERSARY, TIA! AND MANY MORE!

 

Tia (in yellow) and friends at the Russia Space Museum in Moscow last year