“She said that it’s not tasty if it’s unsalty; she can’t swallow if it’s a little bit salty. What can I do for her?”
The voice from the dining room welcomes him as soon as he enters into the house. When the mother sees the son, she continues eating with the head down. When the son tastes the curry his mom is eating, he immediately spits it.
“Didn’t I tell you that mom’s disease is not ok to eat salty food?”
“Then why don’t you cook yourself for your mom?” his wife leaves with noisy steps.
He sighs slowly….
“Mom! Don’t eat those anymore… I will cook noodles,” he said to mom.
“Son! Do you have anything to talk to me? Don’t keep it secret; just tell me!” mom said.
“I got promoted next month, mom! So, I’ll be busier. Your daughter-in-law also wants to work instead of living home. That’s why….”
……. Mom realizes what her son wants to mean….
“My son… please don’t send me to a senior center!” Mom said.
Son becomes quiet with sorrow for a while when mom begs his pardon.
“Mom… it’s not that the senior center is not good. Your daughter-in-law will not have time to take care of you when she gets a job. There are staff who will cook and take care of you, mom. It’ll be better than home, mom,” son said.
“But… my son…”
He pretends not to hear mom’s words and walks to the bathroom. He enters into his room after he eats noodles with his mom. Thoughts are around his head while he is gazing outside from the window. He’s thinking about his mom who became a widow since her young age; who took care of him until he grew old enough; who sent him to study in foreign to brighten his future; who doesn’t ask anything back from him by sake of how she sacrificed and took care of him…... Now, he has to send his mom to the senior center just to keep his marriage life longer according to his wife’s request. He sighs deeply; he suffers inside his heart.
He says to himself in mind, “Your mom will not accompany you in the rest of your life, but your wife will do. “His another thought contradicts his first thought, “Your mom becomes old. She can live at most about four or five years more in her life. Please take care of your mom within these few years well. Don’t regret only after she dies .”
He doesn’t dare to think anything more.
He and his mom arrive to the senior center which is built out of town in one evening. He saw that a comedy movie is playing on a 24” TV screen while they are passing through the senior center’s living room. However, he doesn’t hear any laughing sound from the elderly audience…
Some elders whose hair styles and dressing styles are same are sitting on a sofa weakly. An old woman who is sitting on a sofa is uttering words repeatedly in her mouth. A shaking old woman is trying to pick a snack on the floor uncomfortably. After he ignores those scenes from the living hall room, he chooses a room that gets enough sunshine for his mom. By the time he glances outside from the window, he saw some nurses who are pushing seniors’ wheel-chairs under the shadow of the trees. The scene is so heart-breaking for people who see under dim light in the quiet evening.
“Mom… I’m leaving…….”
Mom nods her head slowly for his leaving, waves to her son with shaking hands, and she is trying to say something by opening her mouth which has no teeth inside anymore.
In son’s thought, ‘Mom… your hair even turns silver white… Oh, wrinkles besides her eyes even go deeper and deeper. My mom becomes really old…….”
(1) At that time, he was at age of six. Mom took him and left him at his uncle’s house for a while because she had to travel with an important case. When mom took her luggage and prepared to leave the uncle’s house for the trip, He cried out loud and grabbed mom’s blouse with sorrow and fear.
“Mom… Please don’t leave me… Mom… please don’t leave me here!!”
Mom was not strong enough to leave her son who was crying sadly for her leave. Finally, mom took him with her back from the uncle’s house. He shut the uncle’s house door roughly when he grabbed his mom’s hand and left the uncle’s house. He even didn’t look back the entrance of the uncle’s house because he didn’t want to remember this nightmare event in his whole life that they came to this house to leave him being apart with his mom.
(2) As soon as he enters into the house, he sees that his wife and mother-in-law are trying to throw everything of his mom’s stuff from mom’s own room including the stuff like ‘the prize that highs 2 feet, the prize that he got as the first award for the essay called “My Mother,” a dictionary, his first birthday present from mom’s saved money, a medicine that mom applys when her muscles got hurt before sleep: there’s no difference if they give this medicine to mom without helping her to apply it.’
He cried, “Please stop… don’t throw them anymore.”
His mother-in-law cried back to him with angry eyes, “Where can I put my stuff if I don’t throw these trash-like stuff of your mom?”
“Yeah, just throw this old bed. I will buy a new bed for you tomorrow,” his wife told to her mom.
He sees a picture that stands under the upper side of mom’s bed. This picture was taken when mom took him to the playground.
“These are my mom’s inheritance… I can’t throw anything away!”
“What kind of manner do you have? Why did you cry back to my mom? Beg her pardon immediately!!” his wife told him.
“If I have to love your mom only because of the fact that I marry you, why don’t you love my mom after we marry?” he said.
(3) Night is colder due to the rain. A car is being driven slowly on the empty road heading to the out of town senior center. When he reaches the senior center, he gets off from the car quickly and runs to the mom’s room. He is grabbing the medicine box firmly in his hand that mom usually applys.
He bends his knees in front of the mom’s bed, "Mom… I come and send this medicine box you forgot.”
“Oh, it’s dark already my son… You have work tomorrow right? Please go home, son! I can apply the medicine by myself.”
“Mom…….” his voice sticks in his neck.
“Mom… please forgive me… Let’s Go Home, MOM!!!”
He hugs mom’s old and thin body firmly. “Let’s Go Home, MOM…….” Tears are running through on his cheeks continuously…….
original post from --- http://www.youthwant.com.tw/
[Translated from a Nine Nine Sanay’s blog]
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