Family

Family

‘xyientoayie!” said Chin-san.
“rhwoent!!” said his mother in law.
I did not understand the exact words. Iritation was coming out from both sides. but I knew that they were in argument about noise.
The owner of the apartment, a father does not like noise in the morning. Sneezes or coughs irritates him. The reason is because Chin san comes back home close to midnight working as a chef at one of the famous restaurant on 5th Avenue. He needs to sleep, and he does not allow anyone to disturb his rest. For that, he throws a roommate out of the room without any hesitation. Sleep is crucial for this Chinese man. He is a bread winner, holding a big family together by himself.
So, it was quite difficult for have his mother in law not walking around at 6:30 a.m. washing dishes and mopping the floor. Everyone in the house knows why she is staying, even though she leads a comfortable life in Flushing. This 60-year-old joyful lady keeps moving her fingers with knife to feed two infants.
Of course, she is not a mother of two. Her daughter is. She is at this house in Broolyn for her daughter. She quit her job to support her daughters’ family. She decided to live with roommates that converse with her son-in-law in English. She speaks only in Chinese. However, it seems to be an easy choice: anything for my daughter, for my grandbaby.
Her daughter was expecting a baby and on February 1st just bore the third baby, tiffany, the third girl in Chin san’s family. As much as every member of the family is happy, they are also getting tired of raising another child.
The day the baby saw the first light in her life, her father was filling the documents from the hospital with a small amount of light in the kitchen, alone.
When baby was still and sleeping, Chin-san was awake digging old baby court for the baby to be loved. Everyone sacrificeed something, and devoted themselves in this long process. However no one, not for once, complained.
This morning, for the first time, Mr. Chin snapped at the old Chinese woman. He knows that it is not respectable manner, but he could not resist his temper.
He said, “ I respect her, but she is too sturburn. She does not listen! And she will stay for a month!”
Listening to him, Mrs. Dudy came out of her room. She did not say anything.
She just started mopping the floor again.
Family is precious, but it is not easy to appreciate nor embrace it. Once you can’t reach them, you will miss them for whatever they did, either good or bad. Some might see the situation as break up, but others see as heartwarming.
Probably the latter knows what family truly mean.