If I didn't already love Granny Kim than today I completely fell in love with this lovely lady. And when the KBS cameraman asked her how old she was, me responding "sweet sixteen and never been kissed" seemed so appropriate. She completely stole the spotlight today and it was awesome. All eyes and all cameras were on Granny Kim as she, an 85 year old lady, made us laugh so hard I thought I was seriously going to pee my pants.
Today Snickers and I headed out to Granny Kim's house for a visit with the KBS camera crew of two. It was supposed to be a day date for three but when K-Gere heard about us heading out to see her he invited himself and just randomly showed up.
[Enter me trying my hardest to refrain from commenting on that right there!!!]
I was rather upset that K-Gere had showed up, especially because he wasn't invited. I value my time with Granny Kim and really wanted it to be just the three of us -- Granny Kim, Snickers and me. But there was nothing I could do, he was there now. I like K-Gere, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't his moment to steal the spotlight. It was Granny Kim's. Today was supposed to be just about her.... her with us.
After lunch with Granny Kim, while standing around in the country side parking lot, I started moving my shoulders as if I were dancing. Suddenly Granny Kim joined in and next thing I knew it I was blasting "Dancing Queen" by Abba on my phone via YouTube and we both were dancing. It was hilarious. Granny Kim bopped her shoulders up and down and her smile stretched from ear to ear. Dancing Queen by Abba is now officially Granny Kim's song, I'm claiming it for her... hahaha.
Back at Granny Kim's house, she started loading up a wheelbarrow with two bags of fertiliser for her garden. Her garden was located up the mountain and she seriously was going to push that wheelbarrow up it herself if it weren't for Snickers insisting she let him do it. Granny Kim is proud of my marathon result and we talked about it a lot today so I joked to her about having a little running race up to her garden. Granny Kim then broke out into a run. I let her beat me but she'd argue she beat me fair and square.
Granny Kim is relearning Korean spelling and so we thought it'd be cute to have a little spelling test. K-Gere cheated a bit for her by giving her the names of family members for her to spell so I argued that. Granny Kim spelled one of the names wrong though and so I felt bad for teasing K-Gere about that. Granny Kim may have been the better dancer and faster runner but I won the spelling test.
In between lunch and playing at Granny Kim's house though, there definitely was a situation in which I voiced my true opinion to the KBS camera crew on camera. Today was supposed to be a light day date with Granny Kim but K-Gere, who showed up uninvited I would like to stress, insisted we go visit Grandpa Kim's tomb. I really didn't want to do this because not only do I think it's a private, personal moment not to be broad casted on national television but because I also don't like how upset Granny Kim gets every time we visit. Her husband was the absolute love of her life and she had been having a hard time because he's gone, some 5 years now.
When my mother died, how I viewed my father completely changed. He went from being my father to being a man who had lost the love of his life. My mother really was his other half and I saw and felt just how unconditionally he loved her when he lost her. It's like his world had crumbled and he was suddenly half himself. And when I see Granny Kim crying over Grandpa Kim's tomb, like she does every time we visit, I am reminded of my father. I am reminded of him and the last time he saw my mother. She laid there in the funeral home, in a casket, and when they closed it my father draped his arms around it as if to try to hug her one last time. He laid his head down on her casket, said a few words and it was as if everyone's heart in the room broke at the witness of this. "That is real love", I recall one person saying. I feel this moment, it replays in my mind, every time I see Granny Kim sit beside Grandpa Kim's tomb and cry. It's a hard moment to swallow and I really didn't think it appropriate to be filming such a private moment. The woman lost the love of her life and mourns him every single day, the least you could do is not set it up for public display like such. Sure this is a television show but this is her life, this is my life, and there is a time and place for cameras to document it but not at that particular moment. KBS did not ask for us to go there, K-Gere told us to go there and I was so very disappointed in him for that, for disregarding her and our privacy for the sake of being showy for the cameras and so I said that, for the record, on camera.
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