A wonderful woman died last week. Sylvia Powell was the aunt of my former wife Catherine. The obituary summarizes her extraordinary life.
Sylvia and her husband, John, came back from Shanghai, in 1953 where they had been publishing the China Monthly Review since 1947. They were charged with treason. The trial dragged on; they were not found guilty after nearly ten years of legal maneuvers.
Because of the charges and the era, neither Sylvia nor John could get a job so they started remodeling houses in San Francisco for a living. They ultimately remodeled 14 houses. The last was their home, on Church St., that had their own antique store on the first floor.
The irony is that two people who believed in the Mao revolution, survived in their home country as bootstrap capitalists. I don’t think I ever heard either of them comment on this irony in their lives. I don’t think either ever wavered from their teenage political values.