Thank-you note to mum

Note: This thank-you note was written as a class assignment of the course "Opinion Writing" taught in J-term 2017 by professor-journalist Susan Greenberg. For me, it was a challenging yet precious experience putting into words the gratitude I have had for the people I would have never said these things to otherwise. Sending or not sending those to the recipients, I encourage everyone to sit down and write to the people you love. Because I believe, gratitude is the seed for humanity and society.

Dear Mom,

A winter day in 1989, in a shabby house in a city reviving itself from war rubble, you married a man that owned little more than his love for you. It was a wedding without a wedding dress or a feast, as there should be in any Vietnamese wedding, with cheap homemade beers and concerns from your family about a poor, bony bridegroom eight years older than you, who has two younger disabled siblings to his care. Against all odds, you chose to take his hands into the unknown. Thank you, mum, for holding these hands and never letting them go. Thank you for loving dad through thick and thin, for giving me a family with both loving parents, and for showing me how to stand up for your love no matter what.

Since that day, you have done all kinds of job to help feed the family. Putting aside the pride of your bachelor degree, which was so rare that day there was few suitable jobs for it, you who never did any hard labor all your life started transporting wood from the forest to sell to people in the city. Today, you still frown unconsciously whenever you tell us about working in the seafood factory, where you got arthritis after working long hours with freezers. Back then, we usually couldn’t afford seafood, so I used to be so happy whenever we have crabs in a meal. My excitement was so high that I did not notice you yielded all the crabs to me and brother. Many years later now, when our family is faring much better, you still curse yourself for buying a slightly overpriced shirt for yourself. Yet that shirt is only half the price of mine, not to mention the fact that you have not bought anything for yourself in a while. Mom, how much more should I criticize you for you to start living for yourself?

When I was 16, I got the scholarship to study abroad in Armenia. You were happy and proud, but at the same time so worried to send your little girl off to a country none of us had known about before, where there was no Vietnamese embassy and so many war hot spots surrounding. Many relatives advised you against it, saying that I was too young to live alone in a foreign land, in all the meanings of foreign. But you trusted me. The day I flew away, you came to the capital city to see me off. We were joking and laughing the whole way to the airport. But when it was time to finally say goodbye, you held me the tightest and the longest I have remembered. Your shoulder was shaking and your eyes welling up. But you did not cry. Thank you, mum, for showing your trust in me till the last minute, and for staying strong for me.

It is sad that in our culture, we never say these things to each other, and I blame myself for only writing this as a class assignment. But I hope from 12 hours away, you know that I love you and I am forever grateful for you. Mom, thank you, for being my mom.

#english #thankyounote