The trials of her life, and yet, this adolescent girl still held down the “fortress” for her younger siblings, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
Sixteen should be an age, with the parents, watching over her; but, for the technical high school student Lin, she’d had to, shoulder the responsibilities for caring for her family of ten; and, this load she’d carried, for six years already, her teachers commended her for being a mother, she didn’t like it, “the responsibility of being a mother is way too burdensome for me.”
Yesterday, she was, awarded the certificate for being a model child in the city of Kaohsiung, because her siblings are still very young, and both her father and grandfather were diagnosed with cancer, “their lives may last only for a little over a year”; as the eldest daughter, her only wish was, “to not be separated from my younger siblings”, “if we’re sent to different homes, I hope my siblings won’t turn bad.”
“Bravery! Is her most noted characteristic!”, the social worker, Hsieh, from the Home and Family Center said, that Jing-Fang is an optimistic, strong child who won’t be defeated so easily, although there are a lot of difficulties facing her at home, and, the functions of her parents aren’t really there, but, she’d always, shown her best smiles to the outside world.
Lin’s mother left home when she was just in the fourth grade, she3 and her seven younger siblings, her father and paternal grandfather lived in the old-styled mansion. The father had oral cancer, from long-term chewing betel nuts, drinking and smoking long term; her seventy-two year-old grandfather was diagnosed with leukemia, and, the family of ten basically lived off of donated goods and money from the society.
Lin’s older brother was one year older than she, for the sake of helping with the household finances, after he graduated from middle school, he’d worked at a catering gig; Lin is studying as a first-year nursing school student in the high school technical degree program, her youngest siblings are only nine and eight years old.
“Back then, my parents fought a lot, when she was in the fourth grade, her mother left with her newborn, youngest sister, and, her grandfather started teaching her how to care for her younger siblings, handling the household chores, and, she’d started, living as a mother to her younger siblings since; cooking, cleaning, changing her younger siblings’ diapers, bathing them, because her responsibilities from day to day.
And, it wouldn’t be until almost eight in the evening, would she have time for herself, to study, and do her homework, and, she couldn’t manage to finish her assignments, and she’d, slept on her desk, because she was studying for her major exams. After her teacher learned of her home conditions, she’d called on Lin, to teach her to solve the problems one by one, Lin was so grateful.
She said, that when her siblings were young, they’d acted up a lot, and the teachers would call her father to the school, “After dad got home, he’d blamed me for not disciplining my siblings.”; all the teachers who knew her would call her well-behaved, and commended her for taking up the role of a mother to her younger siblings, but she didn’t like being called such, “the responsibility of a mother is way too burdensome, and I don’t like it.”
To help make the household finances meet, Lin started working after school at the noodle shops, as well as the drink shops after school as she got into middle school, and would buy new clothes for her younger siblings from time to time, and, she’d not had anything new to wear for many years, and, she’d buy her siblings presents on their birthdays too.
“I’d once felt bad, why, was I born, in such a family”, she’d told, that seeing her younger siblings, she’d told herself, “I will, do the best I possibly can”. Because, all the siblings can rely on, was one another.
And so, the circumstances of this young woman’s life had made her into a “mom”, because life calls for it, that, was why she took up the roles, and, she is, very responsible, very mature for her age, because of the hardship and the trials in her life.
Life, the Obstacle Course 