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It’s a little story of my grandmother…
Not many people from my childhood knew my family’s past. I wrote to my childhood best friend in the U.S. about my family history for the first time this year. I did not have to tell such a story from my friend but I decided to tell some of my friends about my family roots. I had known their grandmother and I would talk with their grandmother until she passed away. She would tell her family history such as where in the U.S. she was born. Remembering myself, I had never told her about my family but she was very kind and she accepted me like a family. When I think of my friend’s mom, I still feel very close to her. My friends’ family is mostly very religious.
A few decades ago, she passed away today. There were two cherry trees which bore fruit. Usually, such trees bloom later than cherry trees which only bloom. However, in the year when my grandmother passed away, the blossoms were in full bloom.
My grandmother was born in 1912. She was born as a protestant Christian and an earnest church goer. She learned every word in the Bibles. Her household converted to Christian when a Christian minister was persecuted at the end of Edo era to Meiji era.
Her household was originally from Kyoto. However, around 1200s, the household moved to the southern part of Japan. If I tell her household name before the Meiji Restoration(1868), her household removed one character from her family name, not to be impolite, for reasons.
After 1868, her household declined to be an educator of the Emperor and also declined the aristocratic title after the modern Japan.
Her relative was a politician in Manchuria and my grandmother moved to China and lived there for more than 10 years after she got married. My grandmother didn’t go through censorship or anything after WWII.
I spent with her until she passed away. I was talking all the time with anyone even with Harold. Harold was… He tutored President Roosavelt’s daughter when he was young and he later became a famous medical researcher studying microbiology. Hessel, his step-brother, was from a Jewish family. He was also a famous medical professor at Penn. He was famous for terminal care.
When I was 2, they visited my home and heard me read a children’s book. They believed that I read a book but I just learned the story(probably didn’t understand that much) and also learned where to turn the page. They were both surprised that a 2-year-old was reading a book for them but my mom told what I was doing to them. They started giggling but still they gave me a lot of credit for reciting a story for them.
Anyways…
My grandmother taught me how to read and write by the age 4. She was very strict about reading, especially. She was talking about various stories of her ancestors as a child and also told me various stories.
There was a tiny trauma in her heart. I have an aunt who passed away when she was very little in China. When my grandmother passed away, my aunt had a formal funeral for the first time. It was more than 40 years after she died but she was finally in a resting place with my grandparents. My mother would tell me that she also remembered all her friends’ families’ children’s name and always checked if she could find children of her friends’ who were left in China…
I wrote some of her experiences in Manchuria in my book. However, I hope to write about it sometime in the future. It’s very interesting to know the family history. I have personally liked to read about Jewish people’s history and biographies. It’s something which captures my mind all the time that they search their means of lives, their roots and their history of thousands of years. And the strength of the Jewish people.
Yesterday, I knew I can’t see anything with cherry blossoms today. I prayed the night before that it would be a sunny day without rain toady. I appreciate that it didn’t rain today.
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