an email my friend sent me...

My mom only had one eye.
>
> I hated her... she was such an embarrassment...
>
> She cooked for students & teachers...to support the
> family.
>
> There was one occasion during elementary school and
> my mom came.
>
> I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me?
>
> I threw her a hateful look and ran out.
>
> The next day at school...
>
> "Your mom only has one eye?!?!"...eeeee said a
> friend.
>
> I wished my mom would just disappear from this
> world.
>
> So I said to my mom, "Mom... Why don't you have the
> other eye?!
>
> If you're only going to make me a laughing stock,
> why don't you just
> die?!!!"
>
> My mom did not respond...
>

> I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time,
> it felt good to
> think that
>
> I had said what I'd wanted to say all this time...
>
> Maybe it was! because my mom hadn't punished me,
>
> but I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very
> badly.
>
> That night...
>
> I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of
> water.
>
> My mom was crying there, so quietly,
>
> as if she was afraid that she might wake me.
>
> I took a look at her, and then turned away.
>
> Because of the thing I had said to her earlier,
>
> there was something pinching at me in the corner of
> my heart.
>
> Even so, I hated my mother who was crying out of her
> one eye.
>
> So I told myself that I would grow up and become
> successful.
>
> Then I studied real hard.
>
> I left my mother and went to Singapore to study.
>
> Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own.
>
> Then I had kids, too...
>
> Now I'm living happily as a successful man.
>
> I like it here because it's a place that doesn't
> remind me of my mom.
>
> This happiness was getting bigger and bigger,
> when...
>
> What?! Who's this?!
>
> It was my mother...Still with her one eye.
>
> I felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me.
>
> Even my children ran away, scared of my mom's eye.
>
> And I asked her, "Who are you?!" "I don't know
> you!!!"
>
> as if trying to make that real.
>
> I screamed at her, "How dare you come to my house
> and scare my
> children!!"
>
> GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!"
>
> And to this, my mother quietly answered,
>
> "Oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong
> address,"
>
> and she disappeared out of sight.
>
> Thank goodness...
>
> She doesn't recognize me. I was quite relieved.
>
> I told myself that I wasn't going to care,
>
> Or think about this for the rest of my life.
>
> Then a wave of relief came upon me...
>
> One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to
> my house in
> Singapore.
>
> So, lying to my wife that I was going on a business
> trip, I went.
>
> After the reunion, I went down to the old shack,
>
> that I used to call a house... Just out of curiosity
>
> There, I found my mother fallen on the cold ground.
>
> But I did not shed a single tear.
>
> She had a piece of paper in her hand....It was a
> letter to me.
>
> "My son...
>
> I think my life has been long enough now...
> And... I won't visit Singapore anymore...
> But would it be too much to ask if I wanted you
> to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so
> much..

> And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for
> the reunion.
> But I decided not to go to the school.
> For you......And.....
> I'm sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an
> embarrassment for you.

> You see, when you were very little, you got into an
> accident,
> and lost your eye.
> As a mom, I couldn't stand watching you
> having to grow up with only one eye...
> So I gave you mine...

> I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole
> new world for me, in my place, with that eye.
> I was never upset at you for anything you did..
> The couple times that you were angry with me..
> I thought to myself, 'It's because he loves me..'
> My son... Oh, my son... "