Word: terpstra
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...lucky few, an online encounter can be the start of a beautiful relationship. Mohammed Subhi, a Baghdad security guard, met Hester Terpstra, a Dutch native, on Skype. Terpstra had logged on from Alesund, Norway, where she works as a driving-school instructor. "I was just looking to have a conversation with somebody from a different part of the world," she says. "But from the start, I sensed that Mohammed and I had a special bond." The two kept up their online friendship for several months before it developed into something deeper. They then arranged to meet in Damascus. Any trepidation...
...Remarkably, Subhi's conservative Sunni family has been very supportive, apparently unconcerned that Terpstra is not a Muslim. "They don't care about her religion," he says. "They are just happy that I have a chance to escape from here." But in Iraq, tolerance has become a rare commodity. Hatred between Iraq's Shi'ites and Sunnis runs so deep that few dare cross the divide and seek partners outside their sect. Jumana Majid, 24, and Abdel-Salaam al-Hilli, 27, both graduate students at Baghdad University, had been involved for three years before he formally asked to marry...
...helped deliver her own grandchild, was forever bringing home stray animals, and worked as a volunteer at her local hospital. Now Willie Terpstra badly needs help herself. Last year, mystified by the sudden slurring of her speech, the lively 64-year-old from Rotorua, New Zealand, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and told she had two or three years left. With her speech deteriorating, she flew with her husband Rein to Holland, from where they migrated two decades ago, desperately seeking treatment. "But they told us the same thing - there's really nothing," says Rein. Then he and Willie...
...presentation at a conference in Britain last year was not reassuring, says Dickie. The surgeon claimed to have operated on dozens of MND patients, Dickie notes, "but only presented sketchy information on eight." Anecdotal reports from patients returning from China, meanwhile, speak of seemingly impressive improvements. While Willie Terpstra hasn't regained her speech, her headaches and cramps are gone, and she comfortably drinks fruit juice while communicating with visitors on her electronic typewriter. "He said, 'I know it works, but I don't know how or why or for how long,'" says Rein of Huang. "But at least...