Fulfilling her mother’s final wishes, with the memories of her mother, and a photo of her mother too, translated…
My mother passed on in June of last year, and she should’ve turned seventy by mid-November of last, the night before her birthday, the rain was coming down unevenly, by morning, it’d reduced, down to a light drizzle, looking at my mother’s smiling picture, I’d had a thought, picked up the framed photo of her, said to her in my mind, “Hadn’t you always wanted to travel around? Well, let’s go then!”
My mother who didn’t know how to ride a bicycle, a scooter, nor to drive, can only get a lift when dad has the time to spare, otherwise, she’d, walked whenever she’d gone places. When we were younger, my older brother and I had, tagged along behind her like so. My mother married to a seaside small county farm, and, as she wanted to visit her parents’ in Daxi, back in the fifties, it’s considered, a long way away.
illustration from the papers…
We’d needed to head out early, walk for about three kilometers, then, take three bus transfers to get to Daxi, then, walk for almost four kilometers, then, we could, arrive at the farm that was owned by my maternal grandfather there, and of the way, included a downhill walk, then, we’d, finally arrived at my maternal grandfather’s home. And because on the way back, it’s all, uphill, my older brother and I panted like dogs, and kept asking, “why aren’t we there yet?”, and mom had always smiled and soothed us, “We’re almost there, just a bit longer.”, holding our hands, one in each, even though the road was long, it’d not, kept her from smiling. Back then, she was young, energetic, with her children accompanying, she’d had that spring in her step every step of the way.
Several years later, we’d bought a pickup, and we’d no longer needed to, walk the long way to catch the busses. After midlife, for the sake of her health, my mother insisted on getting up early, and did her walks around the tracks fast, and because she was diagnosed with diabetes, and had inherited hypertension, she’d not, taken a day off, with her smiles still, radiant.
It’s just, that in the final decade of her life, walking as she’d done became, a very distant dream. At age sixty, my mother had a bacterial infection in her spinal column, she’d had it cleaned out and rebuilt, she’d needed to put on the corrective attires after she was released from the hospital. During the first few years, she’d still, worked hard, did her physical rehabilitations around the tracks, pushed her wheelchair and walked a lap, then, with us, helping her, another lap, she’d done a total of twenty laps. But, she’d stopped smiling when she’d walked, to rehabilitate herself, and kept sighing and asking us, “When will I get to, walk freely like I’d done from before?”
“Soon, soon”, it was, my older brother and my turn, to answer to her, but, because of the deteriorations in her brain, she’d started, becoming more and more immobilized. And, in a few short years, she’d reduced the ten laps down to not even able to finish just one lap. Last year, we were able to hire a nurse’s aide, and, at this time, the farthest distance my mother could walk, was from the living room to the bathroom, or into her bedroom, and, each step she took was, shaking and unsteady. Her smiles were, almost, all gone.
With a photo of my mom, I walked for almost an hour, and arrived at the Fishers’ Wharf. The rain had, ceased, and, the skies and seas, opened up before me, “Look, the water is quite blue!”, being raised in the mountains, my mother loved the oceans so, but, instead, I’d much preferred, staying at home in my grandfather’s up in the mountains. And, as I grew up, I’d rooted in Danshui, and, I was near the seas and the mountains, and on the way home, I’d followed the industrial pass, turned with the road, walked for two whole hours and then, arrived home, weathering through the rains as well as got greeted by the sunshine. “We’d gone to the oceans, and hiked up the mountains today! Are you happy now?”, I’d, placed that photo in a frame back to where I’d, taken it from, and my mother still, smiled, hmmmmmmmmmmmm, she looked, satisfied.
Living and dying, growing old and falling ill, although it’s, a passage in life, but, as it’d happened to those we loved dear, it’d, felt heart wrenching. My older brother and I would always console with each other, that mom had, accepted the arrangements, and gone to a place, that whatever she’d wanted to do, she could, do. In heaven, I don’t suppose you only walked, you can also, fly, right?
And so, this woman had, helped her mother fulfilled her final wish, in an alternative way, because that, was the only thing she could help her mother do, take her picture along on those trips that her mother always wanted to go, but didn’t have the chance to, because she got too ill.