Connections here, translated…
Every time I saw it on the news, of accident that happened to infants because of the nannies’ carelessness, I’d always thought about my daughter’s nanny; an illiterate elderly woman from the countryside, with a TON of wisdoms in life and a whole lot of compassion.
I’d married from the big cities into the small farming villages, and, this leisure pace of life, and the strong connection that the locals have with each other, it all excited me very much. But, as soon as the honeymoon phase was over, I’d started, questioning if I’d made the right decisions or not. The traffic wasn’t that fluid in the countryside, at not even nine in the night, everything became, silent; after I got pregnant, I’d started stressing over babysitting, where can I find a professional nanny twenty years ago in the countryside, let alone, one with the certifications for the job.
As I was worrying about this, one day, my father-in-law told me excitedly, that he’d found a nanny. And after I’d inquired, I’d found, that the nanny he’d found was already sixty years old, and can only speak Taiwanese, lived in an even MORE distant region than where we were, all alone on her own too! Seeing how my father was excited as he’d told me, I’d, blanked out in my mind, and, I can only see my father-in-law’s lips opening and closing………
During the latter stages of my pregnancy, I’d still thought of a way, to “stow” my own child “away” into the city after I give birth, but, my father-in-law’s insistence had, beaten me. As I’d finished my maternity leave, I’d needed to return back to work; the very first day I went back to work, my husband took my daughter and I, to the elderly woman’s home and, although I’d visited her, gotten familiar with the environment, knew her a little bit more, but I was still worried into tears. My husband patted my back said, “Don’t worry, dad’ll look in.”, and naturally, as I got off work and picked up my daughter, the elderly woman looked at me with enigma and asked, “Why does your father-in-law drop by several times a day?”
The elderly woman’s house was very vented, there were, shades from the trees all over her yard, and so, they’d not needed to turn on the air-conditioning in the summers. Once my daughter had a fever, and the doctor told us to give her some air-conditioning to help her get cooled off; but the elderly woman insisted that the air can flow freely around, and my daughter will recover faster from her fever, that if she’d started sweating, she’ll wipe the sweat off quickly. And, no matter how hard I’d explained to her, she’d still, insisted on doing things her way. And my husband started to said to me, “Grandma is very experienced, don’t worry, she did, raise four kids and two grandkids on her own.”
Although we’d had varied beliefs of childcaring, but, the elderly woman looks after my daughter like she was her own granddaughter, and she’d called us on the weekends too, “If you need me to watch over her, you can drop her off.”, I’d told the elderly woman, that she too, needed rest, she’d smiled and told me bashfully, “I’d, miss her.”
One day I’d gone to pick my daughter up, I’d screamed so loudly, but, nobody replied, I’d looked out toward the doors, and saw on the distant path, the elderly was pushing my daughter along in her carriage slowly, and my daughter was, waving her arms around happily, the light from the setting sun shone through the trees, and, made their shadows more apparent, that, was such, a touching scene.
The elderly woman’s selfless giving, had given my daughter a healthy and happy infancy. And, afterwards, she’d, never taken in another child, no matter how people would beg and plead with her, she’d told them no, said that as the child leaves, her heart would break. And now, my daughter is twenty years old, and she’d made visits to her nanny from time to time, seeing how young my daughter looked, contrasted to the elderly woman’s frail frames, it’s, as if, I saw those two large and small shadows, leaning on to each other that warm and sunny afternoon again.
So, this, is your interactions with your child’s nanny, and, the elderly woman is very gentle, and, she does, have some older beliefs about childrearing, and the family didn’t battle the rules, and just, gave their young child to the woman to care, and, the elderly woman cared for the daughter very well, they’d become, like a grandmother and granddaughter…
Life, the Obstacle Course 