Chapter 5, Oral history, First draft
Park. Kyeongmin
Memories which will be lost
Last Friday, I went to my parents' house in almost six months to see if they were ok. Busan was much warmer. On the way home on a bus, I noticed that my town was built up even in such a short period with new fancy-looking buildings giving me quite different street views from those in my childhood. There used to be a playground where all my friends came and play for all day long, but now it was replaced with a studio apartment. I didn't want to look at it.
Through narrow alleys, I found a red brick house and there was a sign board hung below the arch of the front gate, and it said 'Forest after rain' in a kind of traditional Korean writing. The name was my mother's idea.
"This place is always messy" I mumbled myself as I got into the front yard. There scattered hundreds of wood pieces, and faint smell of saw dust made me sure that I was home.
"Is anybody home?" I said, but there was no reply. I thought that mother might be in the laundry room for I heard a rattling sound of a washing machine. "Seongwoo, did you have lunch?" A familiar voice said to me. There was my grandmother sitting on the floor. With a smile on my face, I grabbed her both hands. "How many times I told you, grandma. That's not my name. I'm your favorite grandson, Kyeongmin." I said not expecting that I would get a proper response from her. I tried to make her sit on a chair because the floor was quite cold, but she groaned and refused. Few weeks ago, mother told me that somehow grandmother forgot how to stand up on her feet. It was true.
"Grandma, I know it's is going to be difficult to have a normal interview. But I think I can do this school essay, because you told me your great story in the past. And luckily I still remember most of all, so before even I forget, I want to write it down." I said while putting a fire wood in a stove. Granma was watching the wood burning through a glass on the front side of the stove and suddenly said, "Where is my mom? I want to see her." This was not a new question. "Grandma, the grand grandmother already died in…" then I stopped. It was so painful for me to see what she was now. As far as I knew, she was one of the most brave and confident women who once believed that there was nothing she couldn't do and she proved it by raising five children and a dozen of grand children by herself without any help.
There is more to come
ReplyDeleteWhat I liked about this essay is the setting and the trip to Busan. The vivid imagery was very effective during the reading.
ReplyDeleteThe most important idea that emerged was that grandson's effort to ask and go through with the interview. I cannot wait to see the stories grandmother gives him.
The quote "Seongwoo did you have lunch?" made me realize the state of the writers grandmother was in. It was easy for me to recognize the situation.
Like Kyeongmin said, there is more to come.
Chapter 5, Oral history, Final draft
ReplyDeletePark Kyeong-Min
Losing memories
Last Friday, I went to my parents’ house in almost six months to see if they were ok. Busan was much warmer. On the way home on a bus, I noticed that my town was built up even in such a short period with new fancy-looking buildings giving me quite different street views from those in my childhood. There used to be a playground where all my friends came and play for all day long, but now it was replaced with a studio apartment. I didn’t want to look at it.
Through narrow alleys, I found a red brick house and there was a sign board hung below the arch of the front gate, and it said ‘Forest After Rain’ in a kind of traditional Korean writing. The name was my mother’s idea.
“Is anybody home?” I said, but there was no reply. I thought that mother might be in the laundry room for I heard a rattling sound of a washing machine. “Seongwoo, did you have lunch?” A familiar voice said to me. There was my grandmother sitting on the floor. With a smile on my face, I grabbed her both hands. “How many times I told you, grandma. That’s not my name. I’m your favorite grandson, Kyeongmin.” I said not expecting that I would get a proper response from her. I tried to make her sit on a chair because the floor was quite cold, but she groaned and refused. Few weeks ago, mother told me that somehow grandmother forgot how to stand up on her feet. It was true.
“Grandma, I know it’s is going to be difficult to have a normal interview. But I think I can do this school essay, because you told me your great story in the past. And luckily I still remember most of all, so before even I forget, I want to write it down.” I said while putting a fire wood in a stove. Granma was watching the wood burning through a glass on the front side of the stove and suddenly said, “Where is my mom? I want to see her.” This was not a new question. “Grandma, the grand grandmother already died in…” then I stopped.
It was so painful for me to see what she was now. As far as I knew, she was one of the most brave and confident women who once believed that there was nothing she couldn’t do and she proved it by raising five children and a dozen of grand children on her own.
About ten years ago, grandmother was taking care of my brother and me, because parents had to spend all day at work. One day, an old man came all of sudden and told me that he needed to see my grandmother. “Grandma, someone is looking for you. I’ve never seen him before, but somehow he knows your name.” To my surprise, he was grandmother’s young brother living far apart and finally they met face to face for almost 30 years. Through years of life with grandmother, I never asked her about her family members, and it was the day I started to be curious about her life.
ReplyDeleteThough she was born in a rural area, she lived in affluence. Her grandfather was a landowner possessing acres of rice field. “Granma, then were you brought up like a princess?” I asked. “No, I was not. Women were not treated important in 1920s Korea. My brothers were different, they were like princes. I felt just happy that I didn’t need to worry about food which was not common at that time,” she said. I noticed something in her voice. “Then, grandma, have you ever thought that your life could’ve been better if you were born as a boy?” She gave it a thought for a while and said “The only thing I wanted was to go to school like brothers. But my dad never allowed me and other sisters insisting that girls don’t need to learn,” and she left to cook dinner.
Sometimes when I slept next to grandmother, I pestered her for more stories. At the age of eighteen, she was married to grandfather. “I never wanted to leave home and it was hard to take the fact I was going to marry someone. But there is always time you have to accept whether you like it or not,” she sighed. Since grandfather had no family and he was never gentle to his wife, she had to find her own way to survive. In her case, it was much more difficult because at the parents’ house, there were housekeepers taking care of everything. “Wait, Granma. What do you mean that granddad had no family?” I was curious. “Ah, I say it was a gift from your grand grandma. She never wanted her beloved daughter to have a hard married life at an in-law’s house,” she smiled.
A year before Korean War broke out, grandmother went to Japan. As grandfather barely stayed at home, she had responsibility for her children as a head of household. In 1940s, it was an undeniable true that Japan was much better place to live. For a woman who left the home country behind with only two kids, language was not an obstacle. There she learnt Japanese, and also how to sell things at a local market. She knew instantly that this was going to be the job she would do for her entire life. She did love energetic people and atmosphere of marketplaces.
After the war was over, she came back to Korea again. Then, she lived her life as a merchant for many decades. Finally when she saw her youngest daughter got married, she retired at the age of 76.
For my parents were too busy to focus on their kids, grandmother was actually a mother to our brothers. That’s why it is so difficult to accept the fact that she doesn’t recognize me anymore. Though close people or even other family members say that it’s better to send grandmother to a sanatorium, but we don’t want to. Like mother says, “your grandmother never gave up her children, no matter how hard her life was.”
I put some peanuts in grandmother’s mouth. “Grandma, we know that there is no hope for you to get better, but we won’t give up. It’s our turn to take care of you just like you did for your entire life. We love you so much.” Grandmother smiled.