Happy Birthday (3)
After my resident’s meeting, I went back to my apartment to rest for a bit. Around 5:30PM in the evening I headed to the library next to the office of the apartment to check my email. After sending email to necessary people, I was starting to look up any news happening in Korea and around my neighbor around 6PM, when my wife urgently came in, her face all white from shock. She said “We have to hurry to Hanna’s place!” when I asked her what was going on, my wife said, “She feels pain and needs to head to surgery!” I started to feel some panic also. She has three children…
What would’ve happened if her husband didn’t get off work and was not home? Would they have left their children at neighbors? Many thoughts were going through my head.
When my wife had to go into emergency room 44 years ago, I had to leave my children at the owner’s place. At one point, I had to leave my young children at a church member’s place. Many of those thankful things passed my memory like a flash.
I drove hurriedly to our daughter’s place, but I was concerned. It was Friday evening rush hour, so the traffic would be heavy. Also it was raining… But the traffic wasn’t as heavy as expected and we arrived there around 20 minutes. Upon arriving and parking, my wife and I hurriedly went in. Thankfully, my son in law was home, preparing to take my daughter to the hospital. In my daughter’s stomach, there was a growth detected. But it wasn’t cancer, so the surgery date was set to the 2nd of March, but with a sudden pain in her stomach, there was a surgery needed immediately, so were called. A short time later, she was taken to hospital emergency room. All three of the daughters were crying when she went.
They are young, but have strong bond and care for their mother. After my daughter and son-in-law calmed them down, they left. After the 3rd grader and 1st grader daughters went to their rooms, I played with Carys. My wife did the laundry that needed to be done, and waited for our daughter’s news.
Around 9PM in the evening, there was a phone call from our son in law. The news was that after the emergency, she was able to hold up well and was on their way home 30 minutes later. How great it was to hear that. The new problem however, is how to make our youngest, Carys to go to sleep. When my daughter asked how the children were doing, I told her that the other 2 girls were asleep, but what to do with our youngest. She said that she would get taken care of, brushing her teeth, washing her, and then making her sleep. It would take her 30 minutes to arrive. I was starting to worry if Carys would want her mother and cry.
But that was just an unnecessary fear. While she was looking for her mother, Carys went to a corner in the living room, and starting singing. I think it’s from her children’s musical. I was not quite sure what she was singing, since her young age, her pronunciation wasn’t quite correct. It was amazing seeing her, attempting to emulate what she saw on the musical. She would spin in a circle and sing, or sit down and sing. Whenever she gets to the end of a song, she would raise a hand up and shout. My wife and I clapped hard for her whenever she finished a song. Then she would be happy and would start singing another song. My wife and I watched her in amazement and played with her. After about 30 minute later, my daughter and her husband came. After she said “mama!” then continued to sing. My daughter went upstairs to take shower, but Carys didn’t cry and still gave us a great time.
Out of all the birthdays, God gave me the best gift ever. Seeing my cute youngest granddaughter, despite being only 2 year and 5 months old, she is very precocious, and keeping me and my wife happy for hours. It was the best 70th birthday gift.
“Bye grandma, grandpa” was her last thing she said, and upon arriving at our house, it was 10:35PM.
(March 1st, 2014)
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Happy Birthday (4) 
Happy Birthday (3)