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7/17/2005

I spent a couple of days in XiongFan, a city about one hour and half away from Shiyan by car on a newly built highway. It was my mother’s hometown and she wishes to return here for her remaining years. She has a brother and a sister living in the city. Another reason is that there are many conflicts with my younger sister’s family by living together with them in Shiyan. So we came here to do some investigation. Plus I had not seen my uncle, aunt and their families for 10 years. But there was a complication. My uncle (and his family) did not speak with my aunt (and her family). I did not want to get into details as to why but it was a silly thing no matter what. For example, when both of them learnt that we were coming, my aunt insisted that we come to her place first or she wouldn’t see us at all.

Although it was a conflict between the old generations, I didn’t think it should affect the younger ones. So I invited all the children and their families for lunch the next day and gave them a chance to get to know each other. They had not seen or talked to each other for a long time as well in spite of living in the same (not so big a) city. For example, my cousin (uncle’s son) never met another’s (aunt’s daughter) husband let alone their children. It was unimaginable, and sort of funny, to see how the cousins had transformed from playful and sometimes stubborn children to parents. We really had a good time visiting each other so we decided to continue by having dinner together. It was my sincere hope that they could keep this contact up in the future.
Two things are for sure: I’ve been eating too much and we all have changed a lot in 10 years

posted by Unknown @ 3:07 PM