Chapter 8

I just wrote the last sentence to chapter 8, something that took me 5 days.

I knew this chapter would be different from all the other ones before it. Chapters 1-7 gave me a little insight to my grandmother as a young woman. It's funny because I always pictured her as this extraordinarily strong woman, but in the first and fifth chapters, my father introduces her as a slightly spoiled teenager. I enjoyed it because I could certainly relate to her much better. In the chapters in between, I heard about my great-grandparents, their arranged marriage and their great respect for one another that turned into love. I learned about my great-grandfather's great love and dedication to his daughters, despite his own family's disgust that they were girls.

While reading one of the earlier chapters, I found out something about my family I never knew before. My grandmother had an older sister. My father always said Nai Nai was the oldest of 7 children. He never mentioned an older sister. So when my great-grandmother gave birth to her first child, I thought it was my grandmother, until I discovered the name. Unfortunately, I knew this could only mean one thing.

Like I mentioned earlier, I knew chapter 8 was going to be different because my dad sent it as two separate audio files. He mentioned he got choked up and wasn't sure how to pause the recorder so he stopped it. I thought I was mentally prepared for what was to come.

Little did I know, I would be sitting in the middle of a bookstore, crying my eyes out as I translated. I should have known better than to grow attached to Nai Nai's sister. I knew she wasn't going to survive, yet I let myself love her so much. When she passed away at the end of chapter 8, I took it very personally. She was only 3-years-old. I eventually left the bookstore, afraid I was making too big of a scene with my tear-soaked napkins and noisy sobs. I called my dad barely able to speak. My heart just ached for my great-grandmother who couldn't do anything to stop this disease that took her daughter's life and for the little girl whose short life was already filled with so much pain.

Right now, I'm about to begin chapter 9. This time I'm staying at home, armed with tissues because my father told me to be prepared.

So...here we go.