Something that's your mother's favorite, what you remembered her, by…translated…
The Trip to the Hospitals that Took at Least Two, Three Hours Round-Trip, a Sweet Serving of Tapioca Milk Tea, Seemed to Have, Resolved the Fatigue of My Mother's Body & Mind as She Waited for the Treatment Sessions………
"Do you want the tapioca milk tea?", I who rarely purchased the bubble teas asked my daughter who just came home from her cram school sessions. The time was close to nine in the evening, she'd appeared a bit, excited, and was confused at her dear old dad's asking, because it was out of the ordinary.
"Sure!", she'd agreed to my offer instantly, "but, don't you think it's an odd time to want some?" "I'm missing grandma right now." "oh! I know, it's grandma's favorite!"
when he misses his mother, he'd gone and ordered a cup of this...
photo from online
Still remembered, how as I was in the preschool years, I'd gotten a first taste of the tapioca shaved ice that my preschool teacher had cooked up for the class, I'd asked my teacher to give me an extra serving so I could, bring it home to mom. As mom came home from working in the fields, and saw the cup of tapioca ice, she'd wrapped her arms around me, and enjoyed the treat. I didn't know if it was my thoughtfulness that's warmed my mother's heart, or that living in the distant locations, in poverty, we only had this simpler treat to purchase to enjoy, but the tapioca shaved ice had always been my mother's, favorite.
Still remembered, that one day when I'd gone home to visit, I'd bumped into my mother who was just coming in on her bicycle, and there were, a few servings of tapioca shaved ice inside the basket. I was wondering, how did she know? And she'd smiled and told me, "the weather's heated up, and the ladies I shopped with asked one another out for it, and, the ladies had me gone and pick up the treats!" I couldn't help but chuckled, the "ladies" my mom referred to were my great aunts who were ninety-one and ninety-three years of age, in their minds and eyes, my mother is still the agile, youngest sister, my mother was eighty-three back then.
As she grew older, she'd lost all her teeth, and became, frailer with the years. I'd often taken her to the hospitals, and as we passed the bubble tea stands on the way, I'd thought she'd enjoyed the tapioca shaved ice, and bought her a cup of milk tea with the tapioca. That very first taste of sweetness, my mother had nothing but good things to say about the drink, "how can there be such huge tapiocas? So chewy, with the milkiness, and it isn't that sweet, I love it!", she'd also made fun of herself, "this is best fitted for elderly like me without teeth!"
illustration from UDN.com
And ever since, whenever I'd taken my mother out for the rides, to chauffeur her to visit the relatives, as we pass the bubble tea shops, I'd always, stopped and purchased a cup for her; and if I had forgotten to, she'd, reminded me, "Why don't you buy the 'large tapioca ice' for me?", especially on the trips to the hospital that ran for two, three hours, a sweet serving of the drink, was enough, to help my mother lose her fatigue from the long wait to get seen by her physicians.
As I didn't have the time to visit her, my mother who wanted the drink, would pedal for seven whole kilometers on her bicycle, and asked my second eldest sister who operates a noodle stand to purchase a cup for her. My second eldest sister tattled to me about my mother's childlike behaviors, "mom loved the tapioca milk teas so very much, every time she'd come, she'd had to have a cup! And she'd stated that she wanted the large tapiocas! Sometimes, I'm too busy with my customers, but she didn't care, nagged me to go and get a cup for her!"
I'd smiled as I'd heard my sister told me, with that heartache inside. My mother who worked her whole life in planting, had nine children, raised seven, we had too many mouths to feed at home, she'd never had any gourmet foods, and now, as her children are all grown, and can stand on their own, she was easily satisfied, whenever she'd gotten the chances to have a serving of her favorite "tapioca shaved ice".
My mother's been gone for many years, and, I still miss her more than ever before. My daughter and I, with a cup of tapioca milk tea in hand, she ordered the oatmeal milk tea or whatever I didn't get, while I ordered my mother's favorite, tapioca milk tea; as my daughter was, savoring the youthfulness of her years, I was, savoring the past………………
And so, this is your mother's favorite item, and you're now, drinking it, to remember your mother, and, this is a sweet treat, with the sweet memories attached, which made the drink that much sweeter still.
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