MIRAMICHI - Since Robert Forrest stopped his cancer treatments, he hardly leaves his apartment anymore.
But when a Chinese exchange student he and his wife hosted said she was coming to visit, he drove down to Moncton to get her.
As the two drove back from the airport Tuesday, she kept asking how long it would take to get to the Miramichi, until she saw the sign that said it was only 43 kilometres away and started to get excited.
"Coming close now. Coming close now," she said.
Forrest and his wife Shirley welcomed Hannah Wang into their home for six months starting in January 2007. She was the second Chinese exchange student they hosted.
On a rainy winter day, Robert sat back in his recliner, relaxed while Wang fidgeted in excitement with the people she called her Canadian parents.
Robert said Wang was just like one of their own children and if he wasn't sick they would take another exchange student again.
"It was just an enjoyment."
He has terminal cancer and doesn't know how much time he has left. The couple kept in touch with Wang when she went back to China and Shirley had to tell her Robert was dying.
"Tell Bobby I'm coming home," Wang said.
After X-rays and an ultrasound showed a tumour the size of his fist on one lung, Robert went through seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy in Saint John.
It didn't work.
When Shirley called her to say she had bad news about Robert, Wang told her parents he was dying.
"You must go back," they said.
Despite his health problems, the mood was light as the three reminisced about Wang's time at her Canadian home.
Wang said she didn't know how old the Forrest's were before she met them and thought they were in their 60s when she stepped off the bus to meet them. Robert is 76 and Shirley is 72.
"They're very different with their age."
There were a few hiccups along the way when she first arrived, like when she missed the bus on her first day of school and when she got lost trying to find her class at James M. Hill.
It was one of her first experiences with the friendly people of the Miramichi. Wang said she stood in the middle of the hall, lost until someone stopped to help her.
"Very kind."
Wang is now a student at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ont. where she pays for a place to stay, but doesn't have a relationship with the people she lives with and just stays in her room.
"I cry many times in my room."
As she sat in the Forrests' living room, tapping her feet and waving her arms in excitement as she talked, Wang looked at home.
The Forrests had such a big impact on her life that Wang's parents made the trip from China to visit the Miramichi and meet the people who welcomed her into their family.
When Robert heard they wanted to visit he was surprised because he didn't think they would fly halfway around the world to meet them.
"Good, let them come," he said.
Robert and Wang drove to Bathurst to pick them up and her father Gary talked the whole time, until they got to onto the highway and away from the city.
At first, Robert thought something was wrong but soon realized Gary was amazed by the wide open country.
The Forrests used to live on the waterfront in Chatham and Gary would go outside every day and look up and down the river. He would tell them "I love this place."
Hannah's parents enjoyed their visit so much they told her to stay in Canada and find a job here. She said they also plan to move to Canada.
"They loved it here."
Since she left, Hannah misses Shirley's cooking, like her homemade bread, and said the people aren't the same in Ontario.
"People in Miramichi are very friendly."
Shirley said Wang got to know all of their family during her time with them and the Miramichi is now her Canadian home.
"It was one of our happiest times."
Robert said he never expected them to have as good an experience with the exchange students as they did. He is reluctant to see Hannah leave on Sunday after her short five day visit.
"I'm gonna kidnap her and keep her," he said with a smile.
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