Oscar was the roommate of Melissa’s older son, Christopher, in college in New York. He came from a Mexican American family in a poor neighborhood of El Paso, Texas. He and Christopher would trade stories about their very different backgrounds. One day Christopher said that she would like to meet him on one of her visits to New York. Melissa took time out of her busy schedule one evening in 1980 to get to know this man – one on one.
Here is Oscar’s recounting of the encounter, which both would cherish for years.
“Chris was my roommate during my first year at Columbia University. After a while, he wanted me to meet his mom. Rather, he said his mom wanted to meet me. Which was intimidating. His mom, Melissa Wells, worked as a U.S. ambassador and had an office in the United Nations. Chris talked about his family traveling the world, especially Africa, and knowing people like Andrew Young, then the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, and Shirley Temple Black, U.S. Ambassador to Guinea-Bissau. It was a rarefied existence that was alien to me, but I found its unfamiliarity also intriguing.
My background included all manner of eccentrics and local (very local) cultural luminaries, but I knew no one who dined with world leaders and who maneuvered effortlessly through diplomatic circles. I was raised on Kool-Aid and tacos, not champaign and caviar. I was out of my depth. But I eventually gave in, and a date and time were set, except it would only be me and not Chris meeting Ambassador Wells for dinner. I don’t know why Chris insisted that I fly solo or why I agreed. I had nothing to wear, but I probably ironed those nothing clothes to the best of my abilities, perhaps invested in a haircut.
I showed up to the designated restaurant near the United Nations on a rainy afternoon, a small Japanese restaurant, one of those teppanyaki restaurants [Note: probably Benihana] where the chefs double-dazzle through their cutting skills and culinary talents. I had never eaten Japanese. I wasn’t late, but Ms. Wells was waiting for me inside.
Our time together is a blur. I was so mesmerized by the Ambassador that I hardly noticed the twirling butcher knives above a hot griddle just inches from our faces. I had never been treated with greater kindness and grace. I have never known such kindness and grace since. There I was, a poor student totally lacking in social graces and with little of interest to offer a fabulously worldly person, but Ambassador Wells made me feel like the most important person on earth. Indeed, the only person on earth. Her attention never strayed from our conversations. Her light and smile never diminished. She asked polite but genuine, welcoming questions. I was stunned. It turned out I wasn’t here to give her the opportunity to size me up. I was here because she wanted to welcome me into her family’s circle of loved ones.
That is the only time I met with Melissa Wells but once was enough to sustain me through today. I do not know her record as a diplomat, but she changed at least one young life for the better.”