Everyone wants to be near Family

Today I found a piece of paper on which I scribbled one of my last conversations with Grandpa last year That day, I asked him about his father and mother (my great grandfather and grandmother). He described great grandpa as “yi dian yi hua” meaning that he was straightforward and that he was “hen zhe xing” meaning that he had a warm heart referring to his work for the YMCA (for which he actually traveled to the US). Great Grandma was more difficult to describe for Yeh Yeh. “I guess you could say she was very ‘lao shi’ Yeh Yeh finally said smiling out of the corners of his mouth. Then after a few minutes of silence, he let out a deep sigh and commented out of the blue that grandma “hen ke lian” (is very pitiful) referring to my grandmother’s paralysis.

I asked one final question that day, “Yeh Yeh, do you ever regret leaving great grandma and grandpa in China?” (Grandpa never saw his parents again after he left Shanghai for Taiwan). At this, yeh yeh chuckled and said to me “why would I have any regrets?” I’ve worked hard to put all of my children to college.

Yet I could not help but think to myself as I helped Yeh Yeh across the room through the doorway to the kitchen where we would share one of our last meals together, “did Yeh Yeh ever get lonely in the months and years between visits by my father or me eating by himself?”