Filling Emptiness Caused by the Absence of Mother with Care and Love

On a hot summer day, around fifty brothers and sisters from the Gangneung Zion volunteered to clean the place of a young man who has an intellectual disability. He was living alone since his mother had died. His home was a mess because he didn’t clean the place for a long time. All kinds of dirty things were over the wall and floor, and all the furniture and clothes had molds over them. It seemed impossible for anyone to live in such a place.

It required urgent cleaning; otherwise, the young man’s health could be in danger. We were divided into a few teams, put on masks and rubber gloves, and started cleaning right away.

First of all, we took all the moldy clothes, linoleum floor, and furniture outside and cleaned and washed them. We swept every corner of the place, and fixed the leak in the bathroom. Sweat poured down while working in the hot weather, but everybody was encouraged to keep working, seeing the house change.

At first, the young man seemed to be uncomfortable as a group of strangers came and started cleaning his place. However, as time passed, he looked relaxed and helped us clean up. That day, we collected trash that filled up a one-ton truck.

Whenever we took a break in between, we had a short conversation with the young man. The time in that place stopped at the moment his mother died. Since he had an intellectual disability, he couldn’t take care of himself or keep the house clean by himself since his mother, who took care of everything before, was no more with him.

It seemed very difficult for him to live a normal life without his mother. However, his love for his mother was as strong as everybody else; he kept all the belongings of his mother, and missed her so much.

While we were eating lunch together, he sobbed. He said he couldn’t get his late mother off his mind and he was not as healthy and strong as before because he’d been living on instant noodles ever since his mother left him. He finished one whole bowl of rice quickly, saying the lunch we had prepared tasted so good.

I felt so bad, but at the same time realized anew how lonely and sad it is to be without a mother. It must be the same for our souls. I was thankful once again that we have our spiritual Mother.

After all the cleaning was done, which took five hours, the place looked totally different. When the young man saw his clean place, he expressed his gratitude, “You are strangers, but you came and made my place like a new one.” Although what we did was not something great, I was happy that the emptiness in his heart, caused by his mother’s absence, seemed to be filled even a little. I pray that with people’s help he will soon stand on his own and live in a pleasant environment.