Family
October 15, 2009
- I grew up in the 1950s, the youngest of six kids in a Korean immigrant family. There were eight of us in a two-bedroom house in Takoma Park, just north of Washington, DC. Outside of school and church duties, we five girls mostly spent our spare time helping my mother make kimchee, which she sold by the gallon to a few Asian restaurants downtown, or cooking, cleaning and hanging endless baskets ...
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October 15, 2009
- Just about a month ago, I went home. It had been several years since I visited my hometown of London, Ontario, Canada. More than 10 years ago, with four kids in tow, ranging in age from 2 to 13, we left family and friends behind and headed south. We've lived in the suburbs of Atlanta ever since.During the past decade we've had plenty of visits from family. Escaping the cold winters of Canada, my ...
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October 15, 2009
- I had a rare chance to speak with my daughter last night over dinner. When I say rare, it was because she and I were alone in the house and we were not pressured to be anywhere after dinner, so we had time to enjoy our food and each other's company. The conversation turned to happiness...in particular, mine. She wanted to know if I was happy. For some reason my children seem to believe that I ...
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October 14, 2009
- As Monday, Columbus Day, was a no-school day, I grabbed the opportunity to pick up my first-grade grandson Jakie from his suburban home and bring him to New York City for 24 hours. Until my daughter and her family moved away a year ago, Jakie would spend an afternoon with me every weekend, with an occasional midweek visit or a full weekend. Out list of activities was long, and he would choose ...
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October 13, 2009
- On July 30th, 2009 a stranger took over the body of Billy-Joe, it started a new saga in a life that has already fought through a lot of adversity. Billy-Joe has a new wife, son and some animals. We were offered a home back in Billy-Joe’s hometown. So with that it was five loads to move up. We did it, then it happened. July 29th, 2009 Billy-Joe suffered a stroke. This time with ...
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October 13, 2009
October 12, 2009
- A backyard fire pit, snappy sparks, red lit, flying. Moonlight whispering through trees, grass, skin, eyes, oh the eyes we love, sending silent messages bigger than a Texas sky. Leaves turned cinnamon and amber, quivering and curling on limbs like tiny, arthritic hands. More eyes, laser sharp, peering through woods, raccoons or possums or skunks, perhaps, noses rising in tribute to ...
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October 10, 2009
- Every spring, Chris and I order butterfly caterpillars. We have an inexpensive, one gallon aquarium, where we keep them safe and snug, while they munch themselves to ten times their size, finally go into chrysalis, and then - the butterfly.Usually, everything goes very well. We watch them with awe...eagerly awaiting the beautiful painted lady butterfly that we know will emerge. They hatch...they ...
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October 9, 2009
- The days are long for an impatient writer, waiting to see her completed book for the first time. I am, as many of you know, a rather impatient person anyway. This is a result of moving often, and treating everything as a temporary situation (not in a Buddhist way, but more of a neurotic, anxious way). Disclaimer aside, I want to take this opportunity to capture the extreme emotions I ...
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October 8, 2009
- My father told me he always loved to drink, ever since he tasted champagne when he was eight years old, a small glass of it that his father gave him on Christmas. When he was eleven, my father got drunk for the first time. He found wine bottles stored in a neighbor's garage. His friends took a few sips, but my father drank a bottle. He wandered around the neighborhood and came home in a ...
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