My Family Story

Gimbap to Buy? Gimbap to Make!

My husband and daughter absolutely love gimbap. One day, I decided to let them eat as much as they wanted and took on a challenge I had long avoided: making gimbap myself. I had a rough experience making it in the past, and ever since then I’d declared, “Gimbap is meant to be bought, not made.” So this decision was a big one for me. On a Sunday morning, I busily began preparing the ingredients. Watching from the side, my daughter eagerly offered to help. “Mom, can I help? I want to do it too! Let’s make it together. It looks fun!” We spread rice onto the seaweed and added the fillings—egg, ham, pickled radish, fish cake—then tried rolling one…

Bae Mi-rah from Seoul, Korea

The “I Love You” Declaration

“From now on, I’m going to tell you ‘I love you’ every morning before I leave for work.” With a solemn expression, my husband made this bold declaration. Because he’s usually so reserved, both my daughter and I were startled by his sudden announcement. “Wait—did we do something wrong? Or is this some kind of punishment?” we asked, half-joking. He laughed, surprised that we would think of it as a punishment. “I just realized I haven’t expressed it much. So I figured it’s better late than never,” he said. His words made me reflect on myself. Back in our newlywed days, we exchanged greetings and expressions of love all the time. But as the years passed and we settled into…

Ok Eun-hui from Changwon, Korea

A Rainy Day

It’s pouring outside. On days like this, going out would leave you soaked from head to toe—but I’ve always liked rainy days. I sometimes wonder, Why do I love the rain so much? When I search for the answer, my mind drifts back to a memory from elementary school. My parents, who were farmers, would head out to the rice fields and vegetable plots at dawn after preparing breakfast for us. One morning, I rushed through my meal and went off to school as usual. By the time classes ended, heavy rain was pouring down. Back then, we didn’t have mobile phones, and even if I could have called my parents, they wouldn’t have had the time to come meet…

Yoon Ju-yeong from Seoul, Korea

A Photo With Dad

When I heard about a contest for photos taken with your dad, I felt excited and decided to join. Our house is filled with pictures—one wall is practically a photo gallery—so I thought it would be easy to find a picture of me with my dad. I went home, heart fluttering, and began searching through drawers and flipping through all our photo albums. But to my surprise, no matter how many pictures I looked at, I couldn’t find a single photo of just the two of us. “Where are all the pictures of me and Dad? There are so many photos, but none with Dad in them!” I exclaimed. That’s when my dad quietly said, “I’m not in the pictures…

Park Yoon-jeong from Seongnam, Korea

The Secret Behind the Stickers

One day, I noticed some stickers on my desk. They featured a cute bunny character—exactly my style. Assuming my mom or younger brother had left them there, I peeled one off and stuck it on my phone. But even after that, more stickers kept appearing on my desk. Curious, I asked my mom, “Mom, are you the one leaving those stickers for me?” Before she could answer, my dad—quietly watching TV—spoke up instead. “That was me. I eat bread as a snack at work, and those stickers come inside the packaging. They looked like something you’d like, so I asked the other employees not to throw them away and give them to me instead. There are other designs too, but…

Lee Su-bin from Gangneung, Korea

A Surprise Visit From My Son

When he was little, my son was full of affection and always clung to me. But once he entered adolescence, he began to drift away, choosing time with his friends over time with his mom. And now that he’s an adult living on his own, I hardly get to see him at all. I know it’s natural for grown children to leave the nest and become independent, but I couldn’t help feeling a bit empty. Even when he stopped by the house, it was usually just for a quick errand before rushing off again. I’d tell myself, “It’s just because he’s busy,” but deep down, I felt a small sting of loneliness—probably because I simply missed him and wanted more…

Seong Deok from Pyeongtaek, Korea

Dad’s Way of Loving

My dad often went on overseas business trips—so often, in fact, that he spent more than half the year in foreign countries. My sister and I, born just a year apart, were raised entirely by our mom. We spent so much time apart from Dad that I once even forgot what he looked like. One day, Mom stepped out to the market and left me home with Dad. But because I didn’t recognize him, I burst into tears and tried to run outside. I later learned that the incident had been a heartbreaking shock for him. When I was twelve, our whole family moved to Vietnam to live together. But even then, Dad was always busy. He was quiet, reserved,…

Kim Yae-eun from Seongnam, Korea

Dad’s House

When I was young, my dad built a house by himself; he saved his salary and bought materials such as bricks, cement, steel bars, and shovels, and piled them in the yard. I still remember my dad digging ditches, with beads of sweat on his forehead and dust on his face. In my eyes as a little child, the construction never seemed to end, and I did not understand why he worked so hard to build the house. When I became an adult, the house my father had built for years was eventually completed. It was the most beautiful two-story house in the neighborhood. Exterior walls painted in great color, a garden for Mom, and the interior with the feeling…

Madrid, Spain

A Note on the Gas Valve

My wife often uses the gas stove, but every so often she forgets to turn off the gas valve afterward. I mentioned it to her a few times, but the habit didn’t really change. So one day, I wrote a small reminder—“Please check the gas valve after use”—and placed it just below the valve. The next day, after cooking and eating some ramen, I was resting in bed when my wife called out from the kitchen. “Honey! Why didn’t you turn off the gas valve?” I had forgotten too. Trying to sound casual, I said, “Even monkeys fall from trees sometimes,” but inwardly I couldn’t help but laugh. I felt embarrassed. I had been quick to point out her mistakes,…

Choi Seok-hwi from Seongnam, Korea

Memories of a Train Ticket

With the holidays approaching, I logged onto the train reservation site to visit my family home for the first time in a long while. Holiday tickets are always in high demand—you have to log in early and wait in a virtual line before reservations officially open. After preparing carefully and trying my best, I barely managed to book a ticket. I checked the ticket again to tell my parents what time I’d arrive. But oh no— The departure time was different from what I remembered. I had made mistakes with train tickets before, so I thought I was being extra careful this time . . . but I still slipped up. That mistake brought back an unforgettable memory from long…

Kim Hye-seon from Seoul, Korea

Question Mark Letter

Not long ago, while organizing my emails, a few messages caught my eye. They were from my younger sibling. Back when I was abroad and phone calls were hard to make because of local conditions, my mom had asked my sibling to email me on her behalf. When I opened those emails, nothing in them looked particularly special at first—just a series of questions: “Did you arrive safely?” “Are you adjusting to the time difference?” “Are you feeling okay?” “Did you unpack your things?” “Are you getting used to the food?” “Mom is so curious about how you’re doing. What happened today?” Worried about her daughter living in a foreign country for the first time, my mom had poured all…

Choi Yae-ju from Hwaseong, Korea

Bibimbap

When I came back from school, my mom used to make me bibimbap mixed with young radish kimchi, boiled barley, a spoonful of red pepper paste, and drops of perilla oil. It was one of my favorite foods. But over the past ten years, I did not eat bibimbap. Just looking at it, I was choked and tears welled up that I could not eat it. A decade ago, I heard from my brother that Mom had only one week to live. Although my mother was suffering from cancer, she had no big problem in her living. Whenever I talk to her on the phone, she always sounded positive that I thought she would be able to overcome her illness.…

Incheon, Korea

“I Like Being a Mom!”

The day before my college graduation, I started to look for what was needed for the graduation like where the ceremony would be held and until what time I had to be there. Just in time, Mom asked me about the graduation cap. The graduation cap was not something I could get naturally if I just attend the graduation. “As for my graduation, the department office lent graduation caps,” said my mom. When I searched here and there on the school website, I found Mom was right. I would’ve been confused if she had not given me a tip about it. On the graduation day, I took pictures with my friends, putting on the graduation cap which I got from…

Seoul, South Korea

The Day I Picked Red Peppers

“Sorry, but can you come help pick red peppers?” One late night, unable to sleep because of the heat, I received a short text from my brother, who lives in the countryside and helps our parents with farming. Even in that single sentence, I could sense his desperation. The next morning, I caught the first bus and headed straight to my parents’ house. “Mom, your worker has arrived!” Mom greeted me with a bright smile. She was glad to have an extra pair of hands during such a busy season, but I could see the worry in her eyes—she knew how hard it would be for me to endure the midsummer sun. When we arrived at the red pepper field,…

Baek Kyung-ran from Gwangju, Korea

My Wife and the Stuffed Cucumbers

To celebrate our first child’s birthday and share a meal together, my wife and I decided to visit their place. It had been five months since the oldest left home for work and the second for college. A couple of months ago, we had visited them, but the joy of the reunion was short-lived. We ended up scolding them and returned home heavy-hearted after seeing how hurt they were. My wife, who had carefully prepared homemade side dishes for that visit, seemed even more upset than I was. I thought she would never make food for them again. But as if nothing had happened, she began preparing side dishes once more. “Why go through all this trouble again when the…

Choi Heon-chim from Wonju, Korea

Like a Bolt Out of the Blue

I was busy arranging the kitchen till late at night because my family was planning to move out. Cleaning the refrigerator as a last chore, I opened a plastic bottle to see what was inside. At that moment, the contents in the bottle suddenly burst out from the bottle with a loud pop and splashed; the old fermented raspberry broth burst out. The kitchen was covered with the somberly reddish raspberry broth from the ceiling to the floor. It was just like a bolt out of the blue. I was shivering without knowing what to do in that unexpected situation. My husband, who was watching TV, rushed to the kitchen, surprised. He quickly grasped the situation and took the rag…

Seoul, Korea

In the Love of Mother

My dad was the oldest son. After my mom got married to my dad, she looked after her parents-in-law, brothers and sisters-in-law, and her five children, and also did the farming work. I think she was destined to work a lot in life. To make matters worse, my family got in difficulty in living; my older sister got a big operation and my dad became sick, and so my mom had to even work in a factory. Whenever she came back home late at night, she couldn’t rest, doing house chores. Back in those days, we didn’t have a washing machine. So the biggest problem was doing laundry in winter. Whenever the water pipe froze due to cold weather, she…

Kim Sun-ho from Incheon, Korea

A Warm Day

One day, I had a sudden pain on my back; I couldn’t even move or talk. When evening came, the pain got worse. There were pile of dishes and housework to do but I had to lie down on bed. Though I tried to go to sleep, I couldn’t. It was difficult to lie either on my back or sideways because my back hurt. Later, I even started to cough and had fever as well. When I moaned in pain alone, my mother came across my mind. I was almost in sleep, thinking of my mother who used to nurse me by my side, putting on wet towel on my forehead, then I felt cold wet towel covering my forehead.…

Seo Hyeon-ju from Incheon, Korea

Confession in Thirty-Seven Years

My mother got married at the age of twenty-four when she was young and beautiful, and lived in a remote countryside where even buses did not operate, taking care of her parents-in-law, brother-in-law, husband, and three kids. As she was so devoted to her family, she didn’t have any time to look after herself. On her sixty-first birthday, all our family gathered. Around the time when her cute grandchildren’s congratulation almost finished, my father came out of his room, holding a piece of paper in his hand. Though he seemed a little bashful, he began to read his handwritten letter that began with “Darling”: “Happy 61st birthday to you! Ever since you married me, you’ve worked hard for thirty-seven years,…

Park Yeong-gyeong from Gumi, Korea

My Husband’s Prayer

Before I received the truth, I had little conversation with my husband. But, after meeting God, my family has changed a lot. Since Heavenly Father and Mother changed my gloomy life, my husband saw my change and came to believe that God exists as Father and Mother. He is now growing in his faith though slow. One day, my husband came to me with a happy smile and said he had something to say. “These days, I pray hard to God.” “Really? What do you pray for?” “I pray, ‘God, please protect my wife from any car accident. Please let her drive safely. I believe that You will help her.’ ” My husband used to say that he trusted in…

Oh Hye-in from Uijeongbu, Korea