Last night I had the great pleasure of meeting Jim Rosapepe again. Unfortunately Sheilah was not there. I sent her my best and I hope to see her again soon.
Jim scheduled a Dracula Is Dead signing at Humanitas bookstore, starting 19:30. Of course he was already there when we arrived at 19:30, talking to his old friends, collaborators and some press.
Since 2001 when I was still teaching Jim Romanian I’ve only met him once, in Herastrau Park where he was walking alone on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I was with my 6 year old daughter. Adara is 9 now.
I read Dracula Is Dead with JB and Adara in Poiana Brasov, on our Easter vacation, and the mentions of Wordland and our family made us really proud. Being mentioned in a book is something that does not happen very often, so not only that I am proud that my family and my company are mentioned in Dracula Is Dead, but that the book depicts Romania in her early postcommunist years. Reading Dracula Is Dead gave me the same feeling I had when I was looking at the pictures my Nenicu took of all the churches Ceausescu was destroying. He took photos of all of them, so we can have at least memories of what this country was before communism.
In my opinion, Jim and Sheilah’s book is a sympathetic memoir about people, places and facts from post revolution Romania. The most beautiful memories of my life are related to the period they describe in the book: getting married, having my daughter, starting my business. Jim and Sheilah were with me when I got married, when I buried my father, when Adara got her christening and they also encouraged me start the language school. As Jim was so modest last night and said that he couldn’t recall his support in starting Wordland, here is the proof!
JIM ROSAPEPE's RECOMMENDATION LETTER
2 more things: 1) I was not the only one to bring my child to meet Jim and share warm feelings and friendship with him! I saw a couple (I only know the guy, probably met him while working with Jim on one of his projects, I have the feeling he was an IT guy) with their very young baby in a pram. They were very happy to meet Jim again, I could tell J. 2) I had 4 copies of Jim’s book with me. He asked me whom did I want him to make them out for. As I was hesitating, Jim signed one for me, one for Adara and when I said that the others should be for “dear friends” he made one out in Romanian! He hasn’t changed a bit!
