I received a call some years ago that my mother was in a car accident near Queen Emma St. and Nuuanu, across from Central Intermediate School. She was upset because she was just at Queens Hospital to hear the news that the pancreatic cancer had returned. My mother was crying. It was one of the things that I could never stand in my life . . to hear my mother crying.
In her early life she was a scrappy rebel and, as a Japanese woman, she broke with tradition and married a white man, which had all kinds of unintended side effects! Somewhere in there, when I was young, she had a nervous breakdown, and I still remember listening to her cry, sitting in the house in Waianae when I was eight years old. She was listening to Crazy, a country western song, over and over again. I could never stand to hear her cry.
And, I could never imagine the horror that one feels to know that this life, such as it is, is coming to an end. Or, waiting for the call to see the results of the tests. Or, being at Queens Medical Center and being told that the cancer had returned.
Accidents happen, but life is precious.
It’s always hard see your parents suffering — when you’re young they seem strong and invincible……..