Page 11 - Harnett Life Fall 2018

py teaching in the Wake County school system. Wesley be.” Honking horns from passing cars, rowdy partygoers
had gotten a scholarship to go to school in New Zealand making their way downtown, and fire alarms were among
and he asked if she wanted to finish up the school year and the most common sounds she said could be heard through
join him there. He went four months ahead of her, but one all hours of the night.
month in, February of that year, she was diagnosed with
thyroid cancer, 25 years old at the time. Johnson said her The second year they traded the city for the suburbs and
plan was to beat the cancer, to go explore other parts of stayed there for the remainder of their life abroad. Being
the world, and that she did. about 10 minutes outside of the city was much quieter, and
Johnson said this was what led them to leave city life be-
Johnson said their stay in New Zealand was a bit longer hind.
than originally planned, “One year turned into five years.”
She said the New Zealand economy was better than the She said it was decided, and told her husband, “We’re going
U.S. economy at the time, which made it easier for them to go to Dunn where you grew up and we’re going live in
both to find jobs. The first year they stayed in the city, but the country.” They also wanted to come back to be closer to
city life was an adjustment. “I found that what I thought I family because they were both missing home, and Johnson
wanted…the studio apartment that I had experienced for 8 said they wanted their nieces and nephews to know that their
months, the first year… it wasn’t as grand as I thought it’d aunt and uncle were not just faces on a computer screen.