How did his sweet tooth came “into being”, I wonder…translated…
As my dad gets older, he’d enjoyed sweets more than ever, in order to prevent him from overeating the sweets, I’d, stored up the whole pack of snacks away from him, only leaving the portioned intakes for him. But sometimes, he just, can’t fight off the urges from his own sweet tooth, he’d searched all over the house for the sweets, and couldn’t find, and came and nagged at me, on how I’d, stashed all the sweets in a secret hiding place, just so he can’t have any.
Once I’d cleaned up my father’s room, and accidentally discovered, that he’d, bought several packages of cookies inside his closets; but for the sake of his pride, I’d, piped myself down, until one day we went out together as a family, and he’d, taken out his private stash to share, and he’d told us, with that glint in his eyes, that these can only satisfy our sweet teeth, not enough to satisfy our hungers. I’d acted surprised, and asked him where he got the cookies from? He’d gloated, “You wouldn’t let me have any, so, I buy them myself!”, it’d made all our families and friends laugh.
I, being an avid follower of healthier living, in order to satisfy my dad’s needs, I’d make the sweetened soups with yam and white fungus from time to time; I’d originally thought, that this can help him get off his own dependency on the sweets, but, apparently, my thoughts were, as powerful, as the calls from his snacks. But, I’d, changed a thought, if the sweets can help my dear old dad find some fun back into his life in his elderly years, a way, to awaken his slowly, numbing out taste buds, why did I need to, take that from him? And so, instead of prohibiting him from it, I’d only, reminded him, to snack less when he became seriously constipated.
Once he’d sighed, that when he was growing up and wanted candies, he’d begged for a dime from his mother who’d done laundry, to make a little extra for the family, and, after several days of begging her for it, he’d finally gotten it, and, rushed to the shop, to play the drawing games, and, if he’d not drawn the prizes, he’d waited until the owner of the shop wasn’t watching, then, switched the rewards, and he’d needed to, get that small piece of cake every time. And now, we have more than enough, but, he’d gotten older, and his intestines won’t allow him to snack on the sweets as he’d wished, he’d felt awful about it.
Turns out, that my father’s loving the sweets had this sense of missing my grandmother behind it. And now, every time he’d, placed a piece of candy in his mouth, his taste buds traveled back in time to his childhood. And, by this way, the sweets, are probably, the best partners for him, after he’d, lost his wife, I suppose.
So, there’s the psychological factor behind why this elderly man loved sweets, and, it’s normal, for the older generations to assign emotional values to things that they loved, it’s a sort of a nostalgia that they have, to savor, to hold onto the memories of something they cherished deeply.