Chapter 22 Leaving Cheong Wa Dae

After the nine-day mourning, I left Cheong Wa Dae. Five years ago, before my mother suddenly left us, she often said, "We are going back to Sindang-dong again."In the end, my younger siblings and I were forced to start a new life in Xindang-dong without the company of our parents. Now I have to fill the vacancy of my parents and be the head of the family. Looking at the quiet home in Xindang-dong, I felt as lonely and helpless as if I had been thrown in the deep mountains.After returning to Xindangdong, until the 100-day memorial ceremony for my father, hundreds of mourners came every day, including foreign dignitaries who maintained a good relationship with my father and ordinary mourners. The number was too large to count.

I don't know who turned on the TV in the living room. A funny program was playing on the TV. I naturally looked in the direction of the TV, but I couldn't even squeeze out a smile.Every meal is also painful to eat, and every grain of rice is as hard to swallow as sand. Perhaps because it was difficult to accept the fact that his father left, the younger brothers and sisters gradually became less talkative. The Xindang-dong family receives hundreds of condolence letters every day, and I picked up one of them, which was written by a female student of the evening department of the school attached to the industry.

"...After hearing the news of President Park's passing, my classmates and I cried for a long time. Because he is the father of my sister, and also the father of all of us. Please don't lose your courage and work hard!" The 14th generation grandson of General Yi Sun-shin was already over half a century old at that time. The couple brought the wine they brewed by themselves to Xindang-dong and said that it was my father's favorite wine during his lifetime. "We owe President Park a lot of favors." Seeing my haggard expression, my wife showed pity and sadness on her face.She held my hand, which gave me a warm feeling.

I said, "As long as they are people in our country, who doesn't know the magnificence of General Yi Sun-shin." The wife replied, "It's not like that. Just like a pearl will lose its luster if it is buried in the mud, it was President Park. Our people know the truth of history, and only those who are truly patriotic will understand the loyalty of the ancestors who sacrificed for the country." After all, my father did not die in vain, because too many people remember the things he insisted on doing when he was alive.The crowds of mourners are not only domestic, but also abroad.The mourning of the father by overseas workers is even more special.I heard that upon receiving the news of my father's death, all the flowers and incense used in mourning in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia were sold out.On the day of the farewell ceremony for the father's body, the laborers dispatched to the local area arranged a solemn farewell ceremony venue as in Korea to mourn their father, and because they did not have a proper incense burner, they also used oxyacetylene welding and copper wrenches to make a incense burner.

My father also sent canned kimchi to local laborers before, but because it was sent by sea, it arrived after my father passed away.The laborers who received the packages cried loudly locally, and the whole construction site fell into a mournful mood.As a daughter, I can only bow my head and express my gratitude to their sincerity. When receiving the condolence package from Japan, the employees of the Xindangdong Post Office wrote on the outside of the package, "How are you doing recently? I miss you so much" "We will be by your side, come on!" "Take care Body" and other condolences.