Virus resulted in worry for friends

I was worried about Tamuna.

Tamuna was worried about me.

That’s the way it works with friends.

We met 20 years ago in the Republic of Georgia.

She was a cute, 20-something interpreter with a great command of English. She had attended high school in Texas as a foreign student under the Freedom Support Act. Years later, she’d go on to earn a master’s degree in communications from the University of South Dakota as a Muskie Scholar, a U.S. taxpayer-supported program that has been quietly changing the world.

Today, she’s a 40-something mom with two lively daughters and a smart, supportive husband.

Now as then, she’s young enough to be my daughter. In fact, she’s one of those friends I tend to count as “extra daughters.”

But our friendship raised a few eyebrows 20 years ago in Tbilisi.

We had hit it off immediately. Her high school experience in the U.S. made work with her as an interpreter almost effortless as I did my best to instill professional journalism standards in the post-Soviet world.

Still, the eyebrows went up when I declined an invitation from the head of the program I was working for.

He and his wife, he told me, were going to venture out to the puppet theatre to see an epic production of “The Battle of Stalingrad.” Would I like to come along?

Nope, I said. Tamuna and I are going out to dinner.

To me, that seemed the obvious choice. Dinner with a smart young Georgian or watching marionettes galumph around as they reenacted one of the most brutal battles of World War II? Which would you choose?

I chose dinner with Tamuna and I listened. I listened as she talked about her country, her life, her parents (her father was director of the historical museum in the regional city of Kutaisi, where I had done a seminar for journalists), her views on religion, guys and the future.

We argued, we debated, we agreed to disagree and our friendship was cemented. My role was to be the old guy she could tell things to that she couldn’t tell her parents. My role was to offer advice now and then without being judgmental. That’s what friends do.

Several years later, while she was working on that master’s degree as a Muskie Scholar, we continued to stay in touch. Her husband had left an impressive job in Georgia to work in a pizza shop in Rapid City, South Dakota, in order to fill the income needs for their growing family.

Connie and I sent presents to their daughters at Christmastime. They sent back photos full of smiles.

But the other day, I started worrying about Tamuna. And she apparently had been worrying about me as well.

I zipped her an email, figuring that she was still in Tbilisi, Georgia, with the family during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’ve found myself worrying about you and your family during this crazy pandemic era,” I wrote. “Little credible news has reached me from Georgia. … Are you still in Tbilisi? Safe?”

Efficient as always, Tamuna wrote back promptly.

“So great to hear from you!” she wrote.

“I was actually thinking about you and Connie, and I am glad to hear you are doing well. I am hoping that your daughters are doing well too, and they will be able to avoid the negative effects of the pandemic. 

“As for Georgia, we've been doing quite well for a small country. Our government shut down borders quite early on and did a great job of tracking cases. … I am extremely impressed with professionalism of our National Center for Disease Control, which is leading the process as true heroes, and our current Prime Minister also turned out to be a great crisis manager. We are now gradually moving into recovery phase, and I am so hopeful the hard part will be over soon. 

“That said, I am now starting a 5-month contract with WHO (World Health Organization) office here so that I can prepare a country-wide communication strategy for the recovery period. It is an interesting job, extremely challenging and demanding, but I feel I can do something that will actually have a large-scale impact. So wish me luck!”

Somehow, I think we’re the ones who could use a little more luck.

With leaders like Tamuna stepping up, her country is in good hands. — J.R.