Nam SoonYoung
77y, Busan

"Getting sick
Living too long

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That's my biggest worry"

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September 12, 2021

I often visited the quiet dock in Daepyeong-dong, Yeong-Do
Where located acrosed to the Jagalchi Market.

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Every couple of visits
I'd see Soon-young sitting
With her small cart full of flat cans
Leaning against someone else's factory wall

That day, I bought ice cream from a nearby store and handed it to her

We chatted about this and that.

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She said she lives in a house high up
In Sinseon-dong, Yeongdo

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Though her eldest son is in Ulsan
And her younger son in Cheongdo
She doesn't want to be a burden, so she collects and sells things
To at least buy side dishes to eat.

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In that neighborhood where every other house is empty
And streetlights dim after sunset, making it scary
She now guards that house, that neighborhood
With other grandmothers who've become like sisters.

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Thanking me for the ice cream, saying she enjoyed it
She snatched the crumpled wrapper from my hand
Stuffed it into her cart
And slowly disappeared along the shadow of the factory eaves.

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A few days later
I visited her house with a clear view of Yeongdo's sea.

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Despite her neighborhood friends' insistence
To stop struggling and live comfortably with her sons
She lied, saying she's comfortable here

And turned her eyes to her grandchildren's photos on the wall

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She said she liked the color of the newly replaced floor
And insisted on coming down the narrow alley
To see me off with repeated thanks.

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In 2023

When I visited that place again
Soon-young no longer lived there.

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Diagnosed with dementia
She had entered a nursing hospital
Near Ulsan where her eldest son lives

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A neighborhood friend who recognized me shared the news.

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Soon-young, who had been guarding
That place people were leaving

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Has now

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Left too.