As promised, here are our first to entries for the Legacy of Light Mother/Daughter Story Contest. The contest goes until Monday June 8th, so don't miss your chance to send in your story. Details here.
A Legacy of Spring Rolls - by Kim O.
Few aromas evoke my childhood as strongly as the oniony odor of my Vietnamese mother's spring rolls, frying on her spattered stove. Brown, cruncy, and hot, dipped in fish sauce, her spring rolls were intensely satisfying. I couldn't know then how those rolls would sustain me as an adult, when my family had become fractured and estranged.
To an American-born girl like me, my mother was an exotic creature, offering me treats that I could get nowhere else in my suburban town. When I was old enough, we made spring rolls together—chopping, mixing, rolling, and frying.
By the time I reached high school, however, I was more interested in pizza with my friends than spring rolls. My parents had divorced, and my mother and I argued frequently. I was too American, she said, and not deferential enough. She was too Vietnamese, I thought, and didn't understand me. We became estranged.
Yet I made her rolls. Doing so, I felt her presence at my shoulder, guiding my hands. I came to view the rolls as an essential part of my family legacy. When my son was born, I envisioned a day when I could pass the recipe on to him.
Not too long ago, my mother called me, expressing her wish to heal the breach and know her grandchild. “Let's get together,” she said. “We'll make spring rolls.” Later, in my kitchen, thick with the pungency of fish sauce and regret, we did just that.
by Sherri S.
We love each other dearly. I can't wait till she comes home from college. The first week, it is like a romance. She wants to go out to lunch with me, talk, walk in a park, and go shopping together. She even tells her friends, "I can't do that now, I'm with my mom." The second week, it wears off and mostly she tells me where she is going and what time she'll be back. I sigh and love her energy and busyness and fade into the background until I'm needed.
The good thing is she listens to my opinion on the big things and takes my suggestions sometimes (but definitely never on fashion). She saw the close relationship I had with my mom and I hope that lets her know that we will always be close also. I love her and
admire her and learn from her too (especially about fashion).
Comments