Mom, Forever

The first thing I did when I got back from Rwanda was to call my Mom. I knew she was worried about me going amidst armed rebels to do some kind of field research she didn't want to understand.

She was very happy to hear my voice. She told me that she just went to market that morning and got some green leafy vegetables. "Those are your favorite. " She said, "If you were at home, you would eat them all up in one bite. "

My daughter wanted to talk to her grandma. She grabbed the phone, "Wai Po (Grandma in Chinese), listen to this, " She started to recite a famous ancient poem in Chinese.

"You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.

As the peach blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown,

I have a world apart that is not among men. "
 

"Do you like it, Wai Po?" She asked. My father grabbed the phone from Wai Po. I heard my father's laughter crossing the pacific ocean along the telephone wire and they made loud echoes in my living room in Pittsburgh. He said, "Mango, you' re the greatest."

That was early in the morning of July 14th, 2001, Chinese time. For me, it was the dark of night. I went to sleep.

The phone woke me up. It was my sister. "Sha, Mom went away."

"What? Where?"

Then I heard crying. My world is never the same.

My Mother was only 57. She had an unexpected sudden heart attack. Mango does not know what the death means. She believes that Wai Po has become a star, looking at us in the sky.

           Click to see an article written by my Father

                                    (In Chinese)
 
 

     Click for My Mom's Pictures