With much anticipation and curiosity,
Snickers and I headed out to Daejon today to meet one of my mother’s friends,
Sophia – a lady my mom met at church.
My parents are cute in that they’re quite
interested and proud when they meet Koreans in Canada and they’re always quick
to note to them that their daughter (me) lives in Korea. I can’t tell you how many times my parents
have told me about the new couple that moved in across the street from them
that are Korean. They’re actually not
new really. I think they’ve been living
there about three years now but news of their move is as fresh as if it were
yesterday! Anyways, upon noting that
there was a Korean lady sitting just but a couple of pews away from my mom at
her church, my mother introduced herself.
The two have been good friends ever since and today I got to meet her.
It was quite the feeling, meeting my mom’s
friend for the first time. It’s been
about a year and a half since my mother died from pancreatic cancer but in
meeting my mom’s friend for the first time, in a way it felt like she was really
living on. We sat there for a little
over an hour before Sophia then had to go.
Her family was celebrating her grandson’s first birthday today so she
had to get ready for the evening festivities.
It was so nice to meet her, my mother’s
friend, but our meeting came attached with various emotions that didn’t really
surface until I was in the car alone with Snickers. In the car, I thought about what Sophia would
tell my mom about me and how my mother would go instantly into “brag mode” about
my life. She loved it whenever her
friends noted if they thought I was pretty and well-mannered, and I was always
sure to get an ear-load report about it all. Then I thought about how my mother never did get to see my life here
in Korea and that was rather heartbreaking. Korea is
obviously a huge part of my life but she never did get the chance to travel here to experience
it. By the time she convinced herself to do so it was too late, she was struggling with cancer. I fear my father will never experience my life here either and I noted this to Sophia, urging her to
help me push my father into coming here.
My father now lives in a large 20-some room house by himself – the home
I lived in since I was born. I know he
doesn’t want to part with it because of all the memories and hard work he and
my mother put into making the house a home, but it’s just too much work for
him. The front spare room in my home,
here in Korea, will remain empty, a temporary storage, because it was
originally thought to be my father’s bedroom whenever he plans to move
here.
In September Sophia will be returning to
Korea and it is anticipated that she will bring my father here with her. If convincing my father doesn’t work then
Snickers and I have a back-up plan. We’ve
already decided that regardless of what money we owe or are making with our
boxing club, that this Christmas we’re going to buy my father a ticket to
Korea. We’ll tell him it’s nonrefundable
and note that if doesn’t care to use it than he can just throw it away. My father would never throw away money like
that, especially not mine, so that’s what we’re banking on to pull him over
here. I know my father, he hates to
waste money, he likes to stay in his comfort zone and he’s a hard one to get
out of the house – I am a spinning image of him!
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