Old-A People

A couple days ago my mom left for Korea to hang with her mom, my Halmoni, for her 96th birthday. For years I could never get a straight answer about when my grandma's birthday was. And my mom's vagueness never struck me as odd until this time around when she bought a ticket for her birthday because I thought it had already passed. Turns out my grandmother has been ticking off her birthdays according to the LUNAR CALENDAR and that's why it's sometimes in early January, mid-January, and apparently, even way over in February. This is no joke. I love my grandmother with all my heart. Her family nickname, here in the states at least, is Yoda because she is that old, that short, and that wise. This is my mother's fifth trip to Korea in less than 4 years to bid farewell to her mother because one of the other siblings thought she was at death's door. As far as I can remember though, my grandmother has sworn she already was at death's door, but it's different when it comes from somebody else. I mourned most for her on the trip 3 times ago because I really did think it was going to happen. People may think this is all funny, just some old ass Korean grandmother whose time has come for cryin out loud, but for me, the thought of her passing just kills me a little bit every time. Imagine the most stately tree in your town, having seen in its life what no one else has, living through how many seasons to become something truly to behold: regal and knowing. That's how I see my grandmother. I'd never want to see that tree get cut down, and then imagine hearing that it had to go, you'd at least hope it would be made into something GOOD and BEAUTIFUL, and not just something stupid made of wood. That's how I feel.

Stories by Toddlers

Si: Once upon a time, there was a brother and a sister who went for a walk. And he found ice cream and he ate it. And then he found a bad guy and he ate him. And then he found their father and he keeped him. And then they found their mother who was the bluest bird in the whole... world. The End!