Doreen and Ken were high school sweethearts more than half a century ago. (You can hear more about their love story in EP 496.) But they parted ways in 1973, met and married their spouses, and had children. Doreen's marriage ended in divorce 27 years ago, and Ken's marriage ended in July 2023 when cancer took his wife Snoopy from him. Her dying wish was that he remarry and find happiness again.
Since they were living in different halves of California, Ken phoned Doreen and asked if she'd be open to getting "reaquainted" after all these years. She quickly said "yes," and on January 18th of this new year, they got married!
In this special edition of the podcast, Doreen and Ken open up about what was extra special about their ceremony and how their relationship now feels even closer after getting married to each other.
My longtime friend and fellow podcaster Ken Kemp (The Beached White Male) lives on the far end of Orange County, so his house is far from the fires in SoCal. But many of his out-of-state friends don't know this, so they've been reaching out to he and his wife for reassurances of their safety. They've suffered several days-long power outages due to the high winds, though, so it's not like he's been spared. Knowing that our house is in one of the areas threatened by the Eaton Fire, he called first to hear how Janessa and I were doing. Once he heard that my family and my house were fine, he then suggested that we should do an episode about this current conflagration. Of course I agreed. We also compared notes on the legacy of Pres. Jimmy Carter, who'd recently died at the age of 100.
In editing this episode, I realized that Kemp and I had confused two previous California wildfires. He talks about the Paradise Fires in 2003, and I was referring to the fire in Butte County that destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018.
Dr. Noël S. Harmon is the President and Executive Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Scholars (APIA Scholars), which is America's largest nonprofit dedicated to supporting Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) students. Their newly revamped scholarship application process is aimed at reducing financial barriers to higher education for students most in need, while also ensuring greater flexibility and accessibility for a diverse range of scholars.
Now with this much more inviting application and process, APIA Scholars is once again setting a bold new standard in scholarship delivery by addressing the evolving nees of AANHPI students, many of whom face financial challeges, systemic inequities, and unique cultural pressures. Dr. Harmon says, "We are committed to empowering AANHPI students by ensuring that financila barriers do not stand in the way of their educational aspirations."
www.apiascholars.org