Lived out her dreams, ‘til the last moment of her life, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
The centurion, Chou-Hsiao last year, at around this time, made the amazing journey with her children and grandchildren to circle around the island, originally, the family planned to take her to a marathon on her wheelchair, but, two days ago, the elderly woman was overcome with pneumonia and was hospitalized, her health deteriorated quickly, on the 25th, she’d died peacefully in her sleep. The hundred-year-old life ended, leaving her family missing her, and it teaches us, that you must, show your love to your loved ones right now.
“I really, really want to, play coy with grandma, just one more time”, the grandson, Jun-Liang Chou who was raised by his grandmother when he was younger said, in a saddened voice yesterday, that although in the final years of her life, his grandmother became hard of hearing and was overcome with dementia, but she’s still very healthy physically, and can converse with the family, can walk on her own, but after July of this year after she’d had a minor stroke, her health deteriorated quickly, two weeks ago, because she choked on her food, it’d caused her to have lung problems, and was hospitalized, “when grandma was lying in the hospital, unconscious, I was still able to hug her and tell her how much I loved her, and now, I can’t do that anymore.”
Chou-Hsiao’s hometown was in Changhwa, nine year ago, nine years ago, Jun-Liang Chou took her to Taipei to live with the family, or maybe, it’s because of how she’d labored her whole life, although she was elderly, she’d not needed anybody to steady her, as she climbed up the twelve flights of stairs; last year at this time, Jun-Liang Chou and his wife, Yu-Ching Lu took her to visit her close friends and families, started the tour around the island, although the elderly is already demented, but, as she’d arrived at the railroad crossing where her son had died over thirty years ago, she’d still cried.
Last year, as the UDN Papers conducted its research on Centurions, she was asked, “Is a hundred years long”, she who was demented and hard of hearing said, “How would I know, I don’t know.”, at the age of a hundred, she’d walked faster than her daughter-in-law who is thirty years younger, she’d smoked and drunk alcohol, and although she has only three teeth left, she is still able to eat the chewy meats, the chicken wings, she’d especially loved oolong tea and coffee.
Jun-Liang Chou became muffled as he recalled the time he’d shared with his grandmother, he was filled with gratitude. He said, that back in college, as he was part-timing through school, he would give his grandmother $5,000N.T. every now and then as allowances, but as he’d started his own business after he was relieved of his army duties, “Grandma handed me this tin box with writings on it, with over $200,000N.T.s in it, said it was for my business-starter money, turns out, that every time I’d given her the money, she’d marked it down, and saved it inside the box, didn’t spent a single dollar!”, “the days I have with grandma, each and every moment was, unforgettable”, Jun-Liang Chou said, that his grandmother had finished her one-hundred years of life, although the family is sad to see her go, but, she’d left behind these, amazing, wonderful memories for them to keep.
So, it’s the memories left behind that will stay with those who are left behind in the world by their loved ones, and this elderly woman, because she loved and treated her own younger generations well, that, is why they are all very sad after she’d died, and, she’d gotten a chance, to live her dreams in life as well.
Life, the Obstacle Course 