A visit to the local Halmonis for Parents' Day in May

A visit to the local Halmonis for Parents’ Day in May
May 12, 2021

This is a report after making a visit to Halmonis last week in Changwon and Pohang for Parents’ Day. Due to the pandemic, we only visited the Halmonis who allowed us to visit, and we sent beautiful flowers to those who we haven’t visited.

First, we visited the Changwon area. The Halmoni recently came home after staying with her daughter for a few months because of her poor health. It’s been 3 months since we met her. We bought her a blanket that she said she needed and prepared flowers for Parents’ Day. Representative Lee, Kyung-Hee, who works in the Masan and Changwon area, bought abalone and wished the Halmoni good health. Fortunately, the Halmoni who we haven’t seen for a long time recovered a lot and became healthier. Whenever we visit her, she would prepare snacks for us since we came a long way, and she kept trying to give us drinks this time too. Even though we were hungry because we missed lunch, we wanted to be careful and not take off our masks. Therefore, we had to specify several times that it’s okay because we’ve already eaten and that she doesn’t need to get us anything. We promised that we’ll eat something delicious together next time. We had no choice but to tell a white lie in front of the Halmoni. We hope the pandemic would get better so that we could have a delicious meal with the Halmoni and for her to get well soon and see her healthy like before.

Next, we visited another Halmoni’s son who lives in the neighborhood. This Halmoni has been in a nursing hospital, so we haven’t been able to visit her in a long time. We have been asking how she is doing through the phone. We met her son and delivered flowers for Parents’ Day and said our greetings. As the COVID-19 situation is continuing for a long time, we are getting impatient because we are not able to frequently see the Halmonis. We hope that we can meet them soon and see them healthy.

We headed to Pohang the next day to visit the third halmoni. The Halmoni called our office early in the morning. She called us the previous day as well because she was told by the village chief that she needs to get the COVID-19 vaccine on the day we were visiting. She felt sorry for us because we made our plan to visit her a while ago. But the vaccine needs to come first, so we checked the time she was leaving. Fortunately, we realized that we might be able to meet her before she leaves if we hurry up. We changed our schedule a little and bought some daily necessities for the Halmoni. When we arrived, she was sitting on the flat table in front of her house waiting for the village chief, ready to go out. She welcomed us and led us inside her house. We showed her the flowers we brought her for Parents’ Day. The flowers were to be put on an easel and would stay fine even if they are not watered for 2-3 years. As we opened the leg of the easel and put down the frame, Halmoni said, “It looks strange. This looks like a Korean jigye (traditional tool used to carry baggage).” We all laughed together because it did look like a Korean jigye. Of course, we couldn’t explain to her that it was an easel. The Halmoni had a busy mind even though the time for the village chief to come was still far away. She asked us to go pick lettuces with her. She wanted us to do that before the village chief came to get her for the vaccine and gave each of us a plastic bag. The mini greenhouse customized for her height was full of lettuces. We tried our best to pick them, but we could not keep up with her speed. She picked a handful and gave them to each of us, telling us to put it in a plastic bag. Her back when picking up the lettuce was completely bent but us dissuading her didn’t work. She filled our plastic bags with lettuce until there wasn’t any more room left to put in more. But she still said that this is the only thing that she can give us. After picking all the lettuce, we sat on the flat table and talked with her while we waited for the village chief. It turns out that this is the second vaccine shot she is getting. When she got her first dose, she had been fine and did not feel any pain. Since she was over 90 years old, the village chief and her son were both worried, but she was okay. She said that she was sad that she had to leave without even playing a hwatu(card) game. Before she left, she said, “Next time, let’s play hwatu together”. She also wanted to go downtown and have a meal together next time. We were sad too, but we told her it was good to see her again. We walked her to the car and each of us came back with a bag of lettuce. We called her after she came back, and she told us that she was fine after getting the second vaccine shot and wished us luck.

We hope that the halmonis would stay healthy and the COVID-19 situation would get better soon so that we can visit more often. We would love to buy them delicious meals, go on picnics, and share stories that happened daily. We hope the Halmonis cheer up little by little and we will also do our best.

Korean version / 한국어 원문: https://womenandwar.net/kr/5%ec%9b%94-%ec%96%b4%eb%b2%84%ec%9d%b4%eb%82%a0-%eb%a7%9e%ec%9d%b4-%ec%a7%80%ec%97%ad-%ed%95%a0%eb%a8%b8%eb%8b%88-%eb%b0%a9%eb%ac%b8/

(Translator: Cristy Youn)