💌 469. Neglecting Her Crying Grandchildren, Her Sole Focus on Others' Myriad Chores

No matter how long I waited, my mother-in-law did not come, even as evening fell, long after all my elder children had returned home from school. My children needed to have dinner, so there was no other way. I prepared dinner with my exhausted and aching body, offering it up with Semchigo as if my mother-in-law had done it out of love. My injured ankle made walking difficult, and pumping water up from a well was very hard due to my injured wrist.

But what else could I do? I laboriously drew water from the pump well located far away. While I was cooking rice for dinner by building a fire in the fireplace, my head was spinning as if I could fall over at any moment. Even so, I did my best to take care of my children and fed them dinner. However, my mother-in-law did not return until then. She came very late in the evening, saying that she not only had made dinner but also done the dishes for the landlady's family after dinner.

I thought to myself, “Struggling to move amidst such suffering, yet I cooked and served dinners for my family by crawling around. However, meanwhile, she even took care of the landlady’s dinner..” At that moment, I was about to become a little disappointed. However, I quickly practiced Semchigo as if she had cooked a meal for my children out of love at our house and had taken care of them. And I said to her, “Mother-in-law, you have been through a lot today.” I had expected that my mother-in-law would at least prepare dinner and do dishes for us since I was so sick. 

Initially, my mother-in-law had agreed to help me whenever my mother went to work on the farm in her village until she returned. However, as soon as my mother-in-law returned from my landlady’s home, she hurriedly held her bag and went out of the room, saying, “I am leaving. Give me the bus fare,” though my mother had not come back yet.

Not only did she not pay attention to me, who was suffering so much in pain but she also did not even glance at her four young grandchildren. Moreover, she showed no concern for her son, who had not come home from work yet; she simply took the money and swiftly left. As I watched her leave quickly, I offered it up with Semchigo as if she said to me, “My dear, you must have a hard time but I have some urgent work to do, so I have to go now. I am sorry.”

My husband came home late at night, washed himself and went to bed. Even though I had worked all day with my injured wrist and ankle, fetching water from the distant pump well and going back and forth between our home and the toilet, I did not show him the slightest sign of my exhaustion. I smiled and said, "You have been through a lot all day." and even gave him a massage with my uninjured left hand. Nonetheless, I found joy after offering it up with Semchigo, as if my husband had bought medicine for my sake and had given me a massage as well as with words of comfort.