My mother had only one eye . I hated her , age was such an embarrassment . My mom ran a small shop at a flea market . She collected little weeds and such to sell , anything for the money we needed . She was such an embarrassment . There was this one day during elementary school . I remember that it was field day , and my mom came . I was so embarrassed . How could she do this to me ? I threw her a hateful look and ran out . The next day at school . "Your mom only has one eye ?" and they taunted me .
I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom , "Mom , why don't you have the other eye ? You're only going to make me a laughingstock . Why don't you just die ?"
My mom did not respond . I guess I felt a little bad , but at the same time , it felt goo to think that I had said what I'd wanted to say all this time .
Maybe , it was because my mom hadn't punished me , but I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly .
That night . . . I woke up , and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water . My mom was crying there , so quietly , as if she was afraid that she might wake me up . I took a look at her , and then turned away . Because of the thing I had said to her earlier , there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart . Even so , I hated my mother , who was crying out of her one eye . So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty .
Then I studied really hard . I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied , and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had . Then , I got married . I bought a house of my own . Then I had kids , too . Now I'm living happily as a successful man . I like it here because it's a place that doesn't remind me of my mom .
This happiness was getting bigger and bigger , when someone unexpected came to see me "What ?! Who's this ?" . . . It was my mother . . . Still with her one eye . It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me . My little girl ran away , scared of my mom's eye .
And I asked her , "Who are you ? I don't know you !" as if I tried to make that real . I screamed at her , "How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter ! Get out of here now !"
And to this , my mother quietly answered , "Oh ! I'm so sorry . I may have gotten the wrong address ," and she disappeared . Thank goodness . . . she doesn't recognise me . I was quite relieved . I told myself that I wasn't going to care , or think about this for the rest of my life .
Then a wave of relief came upon me . . . one day , a letter reagarding a school reunion came to my house . I lied to my wife saying that I was going on a business trip . After the reunion , I went down to the old shack , that I used to call a house . . . just out of curiosity there , I found my mother fallen on the cold ground . But I did not shed a single year . She had a piece of paper in her hand . . . it was a letter written to me .
"My Son ,
I think my life has been long enough now . And . . . I won't visit Seoul anymore . . . but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while ? I miss you so much . And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion . But I decided not to go to the school . . . For you . . . I'm sorry that I only have one eye , and I was an embarrassment for you .
You see , when you were very little , you got into an accident , and lost your eye . As a mother , I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye . . . so I gave you mine . . . I was so proud of my son that he was seeing a whole new world for me , in my place , with that eye . I was never upset at you for anything you did . The couple times that you were angry with me . I thought to myself , "it's because he loves me .' I miss the times when you were still young around me . I miss you so much . I love you . You mean the world to me ."
My world Shattered ! Then I cried for the person who lived for me . My Mother .
- Anonymous
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