When Joe lived in Japan, around the age of six or so, a young Japanese woman worked for his dad on the Air Force base.  Her name was Rinko.  Joe kept in touch with her for the next seventy years, exchanging phone calls on birthdays and sending letters and pictures.  She called this September 30th as well, but unfortunately Joe was not well enough to take her call.

On a happier note, Jim started working for Hitachi in 2012 and had the opportunity to travel to Japan later that year on business.  Joe arranged with Rinko for Jim to stop by, and Rinko could not have been nicer.  She was so nice, in fact, that Jim found another excuse to go to Japan in 2014, this time with Paula for a month.  They both visited Rinko, and met her two sons.

Just one example of how Joe was able to bring people together in ways that would have been impossible to predict.