My Family Story

My Younger Brother’s Egg Dishes

When my brother was little, he wanted to learn to cook eggs. So my mom gathered us and said, “Please eat the eggs he made no matter how bad they are.” The first time, the eggs were undercooked slightly. When none of us could willingly eat them, he came and…

Bianca Papapietro from Atlanta, GA, U.S.

Mom and Strawberry

In my childhood, my family was very poor. When the six members of my family lay in a single room, we had no space to turn over. My parents leased farms from others to raise their four children. One day, I was so sick that I told my mom that…

Park Eun-ja from Gumi, Korea

Chocolate Milk

My husband bought banana milk on his way home. It was what he had not done before. Even when I wanted to have quality family time and asked him to eat out all together, he would say, “Three of you may go out.” He was such a blunt husband. So…

Hong Seon-ok from Seoul, Korea

Dad’s Most Concerned Child

I am the third oldest one of four daughters. There is an old joke in Korea, “The third oldest daughters are so pretty that men are willing to take them as their wives without even seeing them.” However, I was my dad’s most concerned child in my family. When I…

Ha Jeong-oh from Jinju, Korea

Well Done!

A mother wheeled a stroller into the elevator. The hair of the child sitting in the stroller was shinny and eye-catching. Then I noticed a mark on his wrist. It was like a “Well Done” stamp. “Hi. What’s on your wrist?” I asked him out of curiosity and his mother…

Choi Seok-hui from Seongnam, Korea

Mom Never Yields with the Power of Love for Her Children

My phone rang while I was washing dishes. It was Mom. I could guess why she was calling me. Mom must have called me to give me some side dishes. At the thought, ‘I should’ve called her first,’ I was sorry to her. I have four older sisters and one…

Lee Su-ja from Gumi, Korea

Lost Shoes Back

My grandma always wants to give me more. When I was in elementary school, she bought me a desk for hard study. She paid for school uniforms in my middle and high school days. When I became a college student and lived alone, she sent me various side dishes. She…

Oh Jin-hui from Anyang, Korea

Filial Piety Is…

Recently, my right wrist hurt. I thought it would be healed soon that I had no regard for it. But the pain worsened as days went by. I was just enduring pain, wearing a wrist brace and doing hot towel massages. My two daughters, who are junior high school students,…

Jang Sun-hyang from Seoul, Korea

My First Salary

I checked the text message at a vibration of my cell phone. My salary was deposited. I was happy because it was the first salary in my life. ‘Is this really mine? How should I use it?’ I thought of many things on the way to the bank with excitement.…

Kim Seon-wu from Seongnam, Korea

Beautiful Mind and Touching Words

My first eight-year-old son is easily frightened. When he went to the bathroom or needed water to drink at night, he had to wake me or my husband up. One day, however, he woke up at dawn and went to the bathroom alone. I wondered how he could do that,…

Jeong Eun-yeong from Uijeongbu, Korea

My Father

It was when I went to my parents’ house for the first holiday after my marriage. Resting in a room, I heard Dad and my husband were talking in the living room. Later, my husband came into the room and so I asked, “What did you and Dad talk about?”…

Tak Jin-seul from Anyang, Korea

Older Sister’s Confession of Love

It was the Lunar New Year holidays during the winter vacation when I was in the second grade of elementary school. My aunt, who had lived close at hand and moved to a remote city, visited our home. We were all smiles to see her family in a long time.…

Han Yu-mi from Changwon, Korea

Mom Is a Cheerleader

When I was younger, I was a swimmer. I started off later than most swimmers and so I had a huge disadvantage. I was the worst on the team and thought that I would never catch up. Every night, I went home crying and told my mom so many times…

Cory Daniel McClellan from New Windsor, NY, U.S.

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…

Madrid, Spain

“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…

Seoul, 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…

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…

Seoul, Korea