Translated…
Awhile ago, as I’d made my visits to the nursing homes, Grandma Green always sat, dumbfounded, with that confused look on her face in her wheelchair, rarely spoke, “I have a bad name, it’s why I’d been, endowed with my super bad luck?” “How! Green means a patch of green pastures, how can it be bad?”, I’d smiled and rebutted her. “No, the green means mung beans, that needed to get broiled in hot water to get fully cooked, life is, trying because of this!”, grandma still complained.
from the papers…
Because how poor her family was, at the age of thirteen, Grandma Green had been sent to a hair salon to apprentice, and other than that, she’d needed to help clean up the house, cook, and be a babysitter for her younger siblings; it’d taken her a little over three years, and she’d finally, come through, rented a small shopfront to start her barber business, other than using her hair trimming skills to impress the clients, she’d gotten the neighbors thumbs up because of her gentleness, and the cheap prices she’d charged them for the haircuts, and her business was, on the rise by the day.
One day, there came, a “handsome lad” at her barber shop, he felt head-over-heels for Grandma Green immediately, and every two to three days, he’d gone to the shops to get his hair done, and, before you knew it, they’d set up their minds, to marry one another, but, this “handsome lad” became the one she’d owed for life. At the start of their marriage, he’d helped out around the house from time to time, as Grandma Green got pregnant, he’d started, fooling around with other women, because he knew, that Grandma Green is already stressed out, busying about, running around all day long, without the time, to pay attention to his misbehaviors, he’d become worse and worse, and eventually, kept, another woman outside of his own home front, and only came back, every now and then, sweet talked her, and slowly, drained up Grandma Green’s hard earned savings, cent by cent. Although she felt awful, Grandma Green can only, swallow her own tears, worked hard, and raised her three young kids, “Especially around the New Years, I’d often washed the clients’ hair, until my fingertips became cracked, and I’d just, wrapped my fingers up in gauze and kept working just the same………”
not my photograph…
Finally, she’d raised her children up, and her only son drank agricultural poisons in the armed services, committed suicide; and that, still wasn’t the end of the tragedies of her life, several years later, Grandma Green’s eldest daughter was diagnosed with a mental illness because of her relationship problems, and just, wandered about all day long outside, and, Grandma Green, because she’d needed to find her daughter, she’d, tripped and fell, and had a hip fracture, that, was why she’d, come to the nursing home. And because Grandma Green had worked for a long time in the constant sounding of the hairdryer, it’d caused her to become, hard of hearing, and couldn’t get into conversations with the other elderly in the nursing home, she’d looked, even lonelier than most.
After so much hardships in her life, I guess, Grandma Green may be using how her parents didn’t give her a good enough name, to de-stress from her years of trials previously. In order to help Grandma Green feel better, the other social workers and I asked her to share one happy thing with us when she’d come.
“Fine, there’s not a single happy thing, there’s nothing I need to be thankful for,” Grandma Green always mumbled. “Fine, if there’s not a whole good thing, half a good thing will do”, I’d played coy with her, “You could, thank your mom for making you so smart, that you’d carried the great hairstyling techniques.” “It’s okay.” “Can you also, thank your clients for being so kind to you, coming to your salon, to let you earn the money.” “Yeah, I guess!” “Can you also, thank the doctors, for performing such a perfect surgery on you, that you can now, slowly, stand back up and learn to walk again?”, “Oh, yeah……”
not my photo still…
Grandma Green’s lips started rising up, it’d become, a smile now, just like how the mung beans had, started sprouted, under the care of the farmers.
So, this woman HAD her share of hardships in life that’s for sure, and she has the right, to complain about how awful her life had been, but, the social workers in the homes reminded her, that although she’d weathered through so many trials of her life, she still had a lot to be thankful for, and that helped changed the elderly woman’s outlook, lifted her spirits up.
Life, the Obstacle Course 