Chapter 6: Grandmother's Warmth

My mother was a strong-willed woman who had many romantic relationships.
He has been married three times.

Her first husband was my father.
I have few memories of this person, but I have heard that he was involved with the Japan National Railways labor union and also served as a city council member.

Her second husband was the manager of a large hotel and was an excellent man with a first-class interpreter qualification.
Her third husband was also a talented man born into an old family, and was a businessman who grew a local company into one that employed several hundred people.

But my mother also had some weaknesses.
He ended up in debt due to his relationships with others, and his life was far from stable.

My mother, shortly after I got married,
He died of cancer in his mid-fifties.

There are such family circumstances,
I was raised in my grandmother's house.

My grandmother was a trusted person in the area.
She was a very popular woman.

My grandmother's family ran a greengrocer's.
When I was in junior high school, my grandfather would take me to the market on my days off.
I remember helping carry vegetables by attaching a cart to the back of my bicycle.

My grandfather was a gentle man, and I don't remember him ever scolding me harshly.
I just loved alcohol, and before I knew it, it had become my job to go to the nearby liquor store at night to buy alcohol by weight.

There was a wealthy house near my grandmother's house, and two childhood friends, sisters, lived there.
He later falls in love with the younger sister, but it is an unrequited first love.

My most memorable memories of my grandmother are
This is the shopping district around Tanabata.

Buy a large bamboo and decorate it with colorful ornaments.
My grandmother was very good at making origami treasure ships.
Its splendor was so impressive that it became a hot topic in the shopping district.

As a child, I was proud of that.

But most of all, I will never forget
It's the kindness of my grandmother.

I am very weak,
I couldn't even swallow my medicine pills.

Some medicines were only in pill form, which my grandmother crushed into small pieces with a hammer.
He mixed it with sugar and gave it to me to drink.

At night when he had an asthma attack, my grandmother would run to get a doctor,
When he came home he sat by my side all night,
He rubbed my back.

In the fear of not being able to breathe,
Only the warmth of my grandmother's hands
I think it put me at ease.

When I'm sick in bed,
My grandmother always had canned peaches ready.

No matter how painful it is,
Strangely enough, I was able to eat only the peaches.

The sweet peach flavor
I still remember it along with my grandmother's kindness.

To such a grandmother,
One day I came home after catching a rockfish.

When I showed the fish I caught in the sea to my grandmother,
My grandmother was very happy.

My grandmother would stew it for me.

He doesn't eat much of his own flesh,
He was drinking the soup made from bone stock with gusto.

"This soup is the best."

My grandmother said that with a smile.
I still remember it clearly.

My grandmother remarried
My mother was a child from a previous marriage.

My aunts and uncles who were born after that
Both of them were very talented people.

My uncle, in particular,
He was always considered the best in the whole school.

In such a family,
It couldn't have been easy to take care of my sister and me.

Still, my grandmother
They welcomed us as family.

Both my aunt and uncle treated me kindly.

I think that was because of my grandmother's virtue.

My grandmother passed away when I was in high school.

At that time,
My uncle, the eldest son, in front of my grandmother's body
She was crying out loud.

My uncle, who was such an excellent and calm person,
I was crying like a child.

That's how my grandmother
He was a big part of the family.

If I didn't have a grandmother,
I could have grown up in an orphanage.

There's not much I can do now.

Just offer water to the Buddhist altar,
All we can do is light incense.

I've heard that water is the most precious thing in the spirit world.

So today too
Offering water to Grandma.

That kind grandmother,
It feels like he's watching over us from somewhere.