Today is the beginning of Hanukkah, which means 8 wonderful days of celebration. I first wanted to thank my best friend in the whole world for exposing me to such a great holiday and opening my mind to a whole other world. Even though she’s only half Jewish (ethnically she is half Peruvian, quarter Austrian, and an eighth Polish and Russian), she still celebrates her heritage by celebrating anything and everything that her parents taught her. We have been best friends since I was in eighth grade, and all I can remember is I thought I would have an Asian best friend.

All but one of us shared Thanksgiving turkey. All of us are thankful.

“You ought to write a book” Tina Su Cooper, my wife, and I were told many times. Our love story, of nearly fifty years of being in love, though separated for nineteen of them, has recently given birth to our book, Ting and I: A Memoir of Love, Courage and Devotion. It is an upbeat story of triumph over prejudice, separation, and life-changing, life-threatening illness. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society magazine, Momentum, has scheduled our article, “Undefeated,” about Tina, for its winter 2011 issue. She is an Asian American heroine.