I Miss My Mom and Her Sisters and . . .

#2021-0818

I miss my mom, her sisters, and many more!

Yesterday my brother Jincan and I went to the funeral of our mother's eldest sister (See the photo on the right).

The funeral was held at 8:00 a.m. in Taipei, but as we live in central Taiwan, we left from home very early in the morning -- about 4:30 a.m. Jincan, who picked me up, said that if we set off late, we might get stuck in traffic during rush hours. He was right. Early in the morning, traffic on the freeway was fairly smooth, and we arrived at the funeral home as early as a quarter past seven.

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, only a small number of people were allowed to be indoors when participating in the funeral. Even the bereaved family had to take turns to enter the ceremony hall; in reality, during the Family Service (jiā-jì, attended by members of the bereaved family), more than half of the family members (who were younger) kept standing in line right outside the door. My brother Jincan and I, as well as our cousin Ms. Xiuzhu and her husband, were then invited into the ceremony hall as close relatives, so we could join them in the Family Service.

(Due to the pandemic, there was no so-called Public Service, gōng-jì, for other people to attend, though some of their good friends came to comfort them in person.)

Near the end of the ceremony, we watched a memorial film which reminded us of many good times in the past. Well, you see, in the first picture below, the one in the middle is my mother's eldest sister, with her husband on the right and my grandmother (mother's mother) on the left! Now my grandmother and all her three daughters have passed away. I miss them very much. And my brother Jincan says he misses them so much, too.

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相關文章 (See also)：

1)  母親的故事     (2016)

2)  別了，親愛的母親    (2020-12-16)

3)  妙香園的回憶     (2020)