Paying Someone the Kindness Shown to Us Double

The misunderstandings, the misinterpretations, that’s, caused everybody to get on one another’s bad side, simply because, what was expected, was NOT spoken aloud!!!  Translated…

Forty years ago, my eldest brother who was two years out of the services, still hadn’t found a job yet, my dad who was too worried over this, went to my youngest aunt, with whom he was closest to, of all his siblings, who’d, married well; shortly, my eldest brother started, working as a clerk at a bank.

My father who’s a farmer knew the rules of “paying someone the kindness shown to us double”, he’d withdrawn the wages he’d saved up, the $20,000N.T. he’d saved, and gave it to my youngest aunt, and her husband’s family as a thank you.  But, my aunt’s father-in-law kept turning us down, and we’d not known what to do, and so, we’d, waited until the harvesting of our fruit farms, and, picked out the best pineapples, lychees, and sent it to my youngest aunt’s house, to show our thanks to her.

Several years later, my uncle wanted to fight for the post of a local representative, and, my dad asked them repeatedly, if there’s, anything that he could, help them with.  My aunt’s father-in-law kept telling my dad it wasn’t, necessary, and my dad took his words at face value, and didn’t inquire on the matters again.  But, three months before the elections, my youngest aunt rushed home angrily, and started screaming, “they’d only told you no, out of courtesy, and you’d, stopped offering to help out?  Do you even KNOW what repaying the kindness mean?”, and my dad asked her, why she’d not taken the money we’d given her in-laws as thanks from back when, she’d stated, very disgustingly, “so little money, and you can, take it out?” then, she’d, walked out of our home, angrily, left us, not knowing, what just happened.

And, the shows continued, and, my aunt and her father-in-law played the roles of good cop, bad cop continually with our family, and my dad finally had it, he’d told my eldest brother, to quit his job at the bank, and, emptied out his own saving account, and, managed, to get all the $100,000N.T. that he’d taken from my aunt from way back, sent it to my youngest uncle’s election headquarters.  And this time, as my youngest uncle tried to push the money back to him, my dad stopped believing him, just, slammed the cash he’d managed to gather together onto the table at my uncle’s office, and immediately, left, just hoped, that all of this, can end.

Many years later, my youngest aunt had, apologized to us all, for being, too straight, but, our two families just couldn’t, be like we once were again, the shame was, buried, too deeply, inside us all now; as for the savings account ledger, it’d, become a warning to us all, “no matter how hard times get, we can only, rely on ourselves, and nobody else!”

And, this still just showed, how STRAIGHT-UP communication, is absolutely NECESSARY, even when you’re, dealing with those in your families, because, you do NOT know how other people feel about things, and, if you keep on assuming that it’s okay with them it won’t be okay, and, you’ll, end up like the elders in this family, stopped being close like family members, and interacting like, enemies!