Haven't done much this weekend. Yesterday after work I headed over to Dad's apartment, which is near the Songnae subway station, and I'm still here. I hung around here yesterday reading an old Cynthia Voigt novel (A Solitary Blue), and Dad, after he got home, put a bowl of fruit next to me as I read. Just like when I was a kid and Mom would periodically come by with snacks. Very comfy.
I conked out around 6 pm. Dad woke me up at 8 for dinner out of a strange dream where I was back at college, just after winter break senior year, and telling Anna Dorfman, "I don't want school to be over. I don't want college to end." Some girl I lived on the same floor with freshman year, Bridget Somethingorother, came by, nodded, and said, "I'll fix it so we won't have to go to graduation." Dad woke me up just then so I don't know if we did end up going to graduation after all. Anna and I didn't go to the same college and Bridget and I exchanged maybe 5 words during our four years of attending the same school, but hey, that's the dreamlife of Helens for you.
Today my grandmother, who is actually my stepgrandmother, came over to the apartment. It's actually her apartment, and when the government tears down these old apartment buildings, she'll be entitled to a place in the new building.
The weekend I arrived here (or maybe the weekend after?), I saw a picture of my real paternal grandmother for the first time. She was in her twenties at the time, but Dad didn't know when the picture had been taken. She died when Dad was 5 years old, in 1953, while giving birth to a baby who also died.
The picture is small, perhaps 2" by 1.5". She is dressed in a hanbok, the traditional Korean dress, but you can only see the dark silk jacket, with a flower pattern, in the photo. Her hair is parted slightly to the left of center, and drawn back smoothly. She wore no jewelry, though I think I can see a touch of lipstick. Her mouth has a distinctive upper lip that I recognize in my aunt's, uncle's, and cousins' faces.
The picture is resting on my eraser, which is next to the keyboard right now. Though I don't know exactly when it was taken, it must have been sometime in the 1920s or 1930s, since my oldest aunt was born in 1939. Korea was a Japanese colony then; she probably spoke and read Japanese, since it was the only language permitted in schools. Wait, did she even go to school then? Certainly she didn't go to college; women didn't do that back then.
Who were you, and what were you like?