Grampa.

Life has been busy, good, and challenging since I got back from China.
Although it is a little bit tough, I am still glad that I made my decision right, I think.
EXCEPT......
My dearest grampa passed away.
Can't believe that I saw him last month and I will never see him again next time I go back home. My grampa is already 95-year-old. He was almost a century old. For sure, he went through a lot and a lot in his life. I am still not used to use the past tense for him.

When I was born, my grampa was in jail because of his family's status. He was from a landlord family at that time when people hated landlords a lot. Not sure how it worked, but the government and the people tried to punish the landlord, I guess. Not sure. Now I truly regret that I didn't hear all the stories from my grampa. :( Isn't that awful?

I love my grampa. He was so nice and smart. He knew a lot of traditional Chinese medicine stuff and he read tons. He always always encouraged the kids to travel around and to learn. When my older sister went to South Korea as an exchange student, he was very proud. He was even more proud when I came to U.S. to study. He told many people that he would come to visit U.S. last year. But now...He's gone already.

Every time I think of him, tears come up with my eyes. I can't help thinking how wonderful and encouraging he was.
I remember that he was willing to sit on a chair for a whole afternoon for me to draw when I was second grade. He punished me once in my life...because of my ugly handwriting. Now, every time I write the characters, I really appreciate he did that.
I really love my grampa. There was a little story from my family. Not sure how real this story is, but almost every relative told me about this.
As the third girl in our family, nobody like me when I was born, only because they found out I was a girl. As you heard maybe, many people in China prefer boys than girls, especially in the traditional and rural areas. So did my family. They really wanted a boy, but somehow I came to this earth. So they thought of giving me away by putting me in a basket on the street. My grandfather, the only one who said we should keep the girl. So I am here. So I have a chance to type these words. I guess there are more details, but I am not very certain for it due to I was not born at that time or I was just a baby at that time. Wish I knew that also....sounds like a dramatic story. :P

Life is filled up with all kinds of uncertainness. We will never know what will happen next second. I am very glad that I went back to China this summer before my grampa left. It was such a good time to hang out with him and see him even though he was sick and weak.
I miss him.

And I am so thankful for many many good friends I have. Many of them messaged me with sympathy words. Really appreciate it.