The following story was written by Jenny Song, who was previously one of my adult students. She asked me to help her correct her writing where necessary and in return I asked if I could put her story, which I found a powerful and moving tribute, on my website for the rest of you to enjoy. Jenny gave me the following background on the story:

This article in fact was written four years ago. I found it again recentlyand rewrote it, but still feel there are a lot of errors that need to be fixed. That's why I turned to you. One of my nieces has a great talent in drawing. Five years ago, when she was still a fifth grader, she created her first illustrated book and it's about her grandma (my mom). The book is really a master work. With a large drawing and only one or two simple sentences on each page of her book, she described her grandma in a warm and humorous way. And what she had done aroused my feelings about my mom, so I started to write this article.

"You work and you get paid; you get paid, then you have no need to ask others for money." This was my mother's belief when she was young. She came from a very poor family. Her parents were reluctant to send her to school because it cost money and daughters couldn't be much help to their maiden family. The investment in daughters wasn't worth it. So, every time, to pay tuition, she asked for money in a way that bordered on begging and it was a nightmare to her. This unpleasant experience formed the belief she sticks firmly to till now and which, after growing up, turned her into a generous person with money that was a very unusual personality among women in her generation.

Because of my mother's belief, as a child, I got many more part-time jobs than others and did much more writing and reading that mom gave me besides the school assignments. For she believed doing well at school assured a better opportunity to obtain a better job and only through one's own efforts could one realize the value of money.

Like most old Taiwanese, she only completed primary school education and in school they only used the Japanese language. To her, Taiwanese and Japanese are both her mother tongue, just like Taiwanese and Mandarin are to most of us today. At that time, Taiwan was a Japanese colony and still an agricultural society. Most people worked as farmers. If you, as a Taiwanese, not to mention a Taiwanese woman, got a job in a school or an office, that meant you were really something. She was doing great at school and could speak Japanese like a native Japanese. Her teacher helped her obtain work as an operator in a government-owned company named "Telephone & Telegram Company". That year she was only fourteen and had just graduated from primary school, having started school late to take care of her younger brothers and sisters.

This first job made it possible for her family to improve their standard of living. She took over the role that most men did - to earn money. From then on she was seldom asked to help with the household chores.

In 1945, Japan lost the war. Taiwan was given back to the KMT government. That year she encountered her first crisis by losing her job. Since Taiwan was returned to her motherland, Mandarin became the only national language. All the employees of her company were in turn sent to Taipei for a six-month Chinese course. After that tough course, the authority held a test. Only a few of her colleagues, including her, passed that test and were allowed to keep their jobs. Others were fired. " It was like hell during that Mandarin learning course," she described to us - her six children - when we all grew up.

Compared with other girls of those days, she got married very late and had to live together with all my father's family members - eleven people in all. There she lived a most painful and gloomy life for about ten years.

My father was the eldest son. As a tradition, he had to hand all the money he earned to his parents for food and education fees for his younger brothers and sisters till they were able to be independent. And my mother, as an eldest daughter-in-law, was supposed to do all the cooking and laundry work after she returned from her company. She struggled between her job and house chores. " It was another period of time living in hell," she said.

Since her salary became the only income the young couple could own, she treasured her job more than ever. When my father asked her to quit her job and concentrate on taking care of the children, she refused without a second thought, even though she suffered by having to spread herself between her job, house work and raising her own kids.

Owing to her hard working, she got her first promotion as the supervisor of operators. In 1980, the year she was fifty-three, her company decided to adopt the computer system. Again she was forced to face another employment challenge and crisis. Maybe it was the Buddha that wanted to reward her diligence, because miraculously, she passed the test on operating the computer system. And then, within her company, she became the only one left who had a Japanese education background. After that test, she got her second promotion and was assigned to the inspecting department where she could enjoy more relaxed work.

One year her company honored her as a model employee and a model woman. These honors brought her to the peak of her career.

Now she is in the eleventh year of her retirement. She lives on her own pension. "Stay active and stay healthy" is her new belief. Like before, she carries it out in her daily life and urges the people around her to do exactly the same. Early every morning, she goes to the nearby school to do physical exercise and then sings karaoke with a bunch of so-called silver-haired people in the park. She goes traveling either around the island or abroad from time to time. Some of her old friends visit her occasionally and she goes to see them in return.

She enjoys chatting with the old neighbors. She loves reading. This good hobby that she developed while young, now helps a lot to pass her spare time. She reads newspapers, Reader's Digest (Chinese edition or Japanese edition) and the Japanese novels that my younger sister buys her as a birthday gift every year. Gardening is another hobby she has. Usually she spends two to three hours in her back yard daily. The plants and flowers are all taken very good care of and look lively. The most special thing that always attracts her is "secret recipes of Chinese herbs". She writes down in her notebook all the ingredients and curing processes of each secret recipe which she hears from other people or the TV programs. Of course, she puts these into practice. And not wanting to hurt her feelings, we drink up all the herb tea she ever makes which sometimes tastes so disgusting. And to our surprise, those recipes really ease the pains and sometimes even cure the illnesses. Who knows? Maybe one day her notebook will become a family heirloom.

Learning new things always brings her great excitement. For a period of time, she took an English class in the County College for old age people. She used three languages - Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese - to note down the meaning or the pronunciation of certain English words which were difficult for her. But as we know, Taiwanese has no written characters. How did she manage that? She used the 37 Mandarin phonetic symbols to note the sound of Taiwanese. It sounds terribly complicated and it surely is. Her notebook of the English class is as mysterious as those of her secret recipes, for no one is able to decipher it.

With a lovely head of white hair, she's still full of energy and always stands straight - old people tend to bend their bodies. She pays attention to her health and the food she eats, and has a much more colorful life than most young people have. She is now seventy-six years old. If you visit Yuan-Lin (my hometown) one day and see an old lady walking gracefully along the street, chatting happily with the people she meets, without a doubt, you will at once know that she is my mom - my adorable mom. You won't miss her for she is UNIQUE.

18 November 2003

Jenny Song

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