Tuesday, November 04, 2003

 

This is just a check to see if the Blogger is still even working. These days, I am living a strange life here in Taiwan. The weather here is finally cooling down, Thank God! I thought summer was going to go on forever! All that damned HEAT and HUMIDITY and SMOG! I would have given my left ventricle for one of our ferocious South Dakota storms! I kept raising my eyes to the heavens and asking God to PLEASE HURRY UP WITH WINTER. But like I said, now things are a bit better.

But things are still very sad here in the Wang household. Interesting how these folks and their traditions remind me so much of us Injuns. I didn't know they hire "professional mourners" just like a lot of the Plains and Woodlands tribes did!

It was very depressing to see and hear the old lady-"pro" cry, cry, cry and wail and crawl on her hands and knees --and there were real tears in her eyes. I wondered what she could possibly be thinking about to make REAL tears. She didn't know Grandmother Wang, or at least I don't think she did.

But her crying made all the rest of us cry, which is a good thing. We have all been too stony faced and numb --and then it hit me. Along with everyone else, I've been so numb or emotionally and mentally blinded that I couldn't even think about it. I remember that professional mourners in Indian societies were supposed to (1) cry for everyone who found it difficult to show their emotions and (2) eventually break through our stony old hearts and make us all cry. Does any of this make sense? I know I'm rambling now...

People often ask me how could I be so "close" to an old Chinese lady who didn't speak a word of English. Well, I knew her for several months, starting in July. Just about every day, I would see her and chat with her and help her water her garden. Then I sat with her during the Mid-Autumn Festival. And I was there when she was lying in that awful hospital bed, bringing her flowers and holding her hand. I will never forget the smile on her face or the sound of her voice when she brightened up and said, "Xie-xie!"

What's more, I'll never forget how she kept saying, "I wanna go home! I wanna go home! I do not want to die here in this hospital." It was so pitiful, especially because all her children were lying to her husband, Grandfather Wang, about Grandmother Li's condition. It got so bad that all of us "grandchildren" were plotting to sneak Grandfather Wang into the hospital so he could visit his wife one last time. But finally, thank God, the "parents" relented and allowed Grandmother Li to go home.

She died three days later. It was so sad to see her go, but I think she was holding on for this moment. Just enough time to say goodbye to her husband and to the rest of us. What was touching for all of us was seeing her embrace her husband for one last time. And for me, I will never forget how she carressed my face as if to say her final farewell to me. I have never been in a room with someone who died before, and I shall never forget it.

Well, this is enough for today. I have a lot of work to do still. Now that I have learned how to resurrect this blog site, I will make frequent use of it until blogger.com kicks me off.

posted by Dr. Wei 6:44 AM