It has taken a lot of courage for Arunee (Ann) to come to Australia, to study, support herself, adjust to Western ways and get ahead. All this while she was missing her family in Thailand and yearning for her homeland. In addition she has had the pluck to meet a man (me) and find the time and patience to develop a strong and enduring relationship. You can add the language barrier if you like - she came with only her high school English memories - so the effect is even greater. Ann doesn't see these things as achievements, just what she had to do, but clearly they are. Meeting a man was not on her schedule when she came here, for she was single-mindedly determined to succeed at her studies and help her family back in Thailand. But that's how things turn out sometimes and we are the happier for this accidental fork in the road.

Here is Ann with her older sister Pinoy and daughter Jay Jay, taken at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok before her first journey here.