She opened her suitcase, and there was a bag full of goodies. Tea of the highest quality, nuts and delicious cookies, and a carefully wrapped and fragile item (which I have not yet opened) which my auntie hand carried and packaged so meticulously to bring to me and to gift me for having purchased my new condo. Later, she stuffed an envelop full of money and insisted I take it...
This is kindness, hospitality and genorosity only family members, and dare I say Taiwanese people, are able to show.
She had flown thousands of miles to Canada and brought me all these goodies knowing that I am here all by myself, far away from any family or close relative. She said the message I sent her, wishing her happy Mid Autumn Festival, moved her... I said I miss my family most of all on that day. And she felt she wanted and needed to do something to make me feel I am not alone, and that there are still many at home who care about and think of me.
We went for a walk, and I led them through the university campus and up to my office building. They were impressed with the setting of my workplace (a really old mansion, antique walls and stained glass windows... really fancy and prestigeous looking...). When mum came, she too went to my office and met some of my colleagues back in 2011. And my auntie stood in my office, for a moment (and I managed to capture that moment on camera) she looked around and it was as if her eyes misted... Perhaps she was thinking of mum, thinking about how mum stood there in that same building barely three years ago...
We went to dinner, or at least she and a friend of hers insisted on taking me to dinner for I had not eaten and was waiting for them all evening to arrive at their hotel. We chatted more, catching up on life and reliving memories. All those trips! All those memories/mumories of travels with mum... funny stories, one or two I did not know till tonight (when mum was in the washroom at a train station, and a drunk barged into the washroom and was trying to kick in the door because he really had to go... it terrified my auntie, but mum did not realise what was all happening as she was inside a stall and busy...)... beautiful stories of trips we took together, of restaurants we went to together... of such wonderful times we had together... When mum was still around... when mum was still all smiles and had that energy, bore with her that kindness and warmth as she took my aunt and a friend of hers to places all over Europe... My aunt got misty eyed again as she spoke.... spoke about their childhood together (they are cousins), about how my mum really looked out for her. And I reminded her of how highly my mum spoke of her mum, for were it not for my auntie's mum, my mum probably would never have that opportunity to go to university and get a good job. All thanks to her mum, who offered to pay for after-school tuition so that my mum could get good grades and excel and in a way escape from the life my mum's stepmum wanted her to have (that of a simple housewife, for in the stepmum's eyes, women need not study...)
I have been feeling somewhat down and missing mum a lot this past week or so, pretty much since the full moon on Mid Autumn Festival. That date is so special, the day when families come together and sit under the full moon... The sense of nostalgia and the longing for days and childhood gone by saddens and weakens me greatly. Seeing my auntie and reliving some of those memories helped, and I realised again how not alone I am for there are those who miss mum and her warmth and her presence still...
This is kindness, hospitality and genorosity only family members, and dare I say Taiwanese people, are able to show.
She had flown thousands of miles to Canada and brought me all these goodies knowing that I am here all by myself, far away from any family or close relative. She said the message I sent her, wishing her happy Mid Autumn Festival, moved her... I said I miss my family most of all on that day. And she felt she wanted and needed to do something to make me feel I am not alone, and that there are still many at home who care about and think of me.
We went for a walk, and I led them through the university campus and up to my office building. They were impressed with the setting of my workplace (a really old mansion, antique walls and stained glass windows... really fancy and prestigeous looking...). When mum came, she too went to my office and met some of my colleagues back in 2011. And my auntie stood in my office, for a moment (and I managed to capture that moment on camera) she looked around and it was as if her eyes misted... Perhaps she was thinking of mum, thinking about how mum stood there in that same building barely three years ago...
We went to dinner, or at least she and a friend of hers insisted on taking me to dinner for I had not eaten and was waiting for them all evening to arrive at their hotel. We chatted more, catching up on life and reliving memories. All those trips! All those memories/mumories of travels with mum... funny stories, one or two I did not know till tonight (when mum was in the washroom at a train station, and a drunk barged into the washroom and was trying to kick in the door because he really had to go... it terrified my auntie, but mum did not realise what was all happening as she was inside a stall and busy...)... beautiful stories of trips we took together, of restaurants we went to together... of such wonderful times we had together... When mum was still around... when mum was still all smiles and had that energy, bore with her that kindness and warmth as she took my aunt and a friend of hers to places all over Europe... My aunt got misty eyed again as she spoke.... spoke about their childhood together (they are cousins), about how my mum really looked out for her. And I reminded her of how highly my mum spoke of her mum, for were it not for my auntie's mum, my mum probably would never have that opportunity to go to university and get a good job. All thanks to her mum, who offered to pay for after-school tuition so that my mum could get good grades and excel and in a way escape from the life my mum's stepmum wanted her to have (that of a simple housewife, for in the stepmum's eyes, women need not study...)
I have been feeling somewhat down and missing mum a lot this past week or so, pretty much since the full moon on Mid Autumn Festival. That date is so special, the day when families come together and sit under the full moon... The sense of nostalgia and the longing for days and childhood gone by saddens and weakens me greatly. Seeing my auntie and reliving some of those memories helped, and I realised again how not alone I am for there are those who miss mum and her warmth and her presence still...
No comments:
Post a Comment