My maternal grandparents are both alive and well. They currently live in Seoul, Korea, to where they moved back in 2006 after having lived in San Francisco for 36 years. I was lucky enough to be close to them for I was born in LA and spent many wonderful holidays with them before my family moved to Korea, but luckily our grandparent soon followed us to Korea where I was able to maintain a close relationship before I left for college.

My grandparents are special people. They have had very colorful and interesting lives. Not only have they experienced the Korean war of 1950 and have lived through the dictator regime of South Korea of the 60's, they also took their family of 6 to the United States in 1970 to start a new life in a foreign country. It must have taken enormous courage and determination to leave everything they were familiar behind and to venture to a country of different race and culture as well as language.

My grandfather was born in October 8th, 1928 although his passport dates his birth year as 1925. Evidently, mistakes on passports were common in those days due to lack of official papers that were destroyed during the war. Interestingly enough, the date of his birthday changes every year because he celebrates his birthday according to the Chinese calendar.

He was born in the town Seoul Li in Kang Won province which is now in North Korea. He lost his father at early age and was very poor growing up. After he finished elementary school, he went to work for a Japanese family as a house boy. He would go back to school when he turned 18. At the time of my grandfather's youth Korea was annexed by japan was in fact ruled by the Japanese government. All Korean were required to have a Japanese name and was required to speak only Japanese. In fact, my grandmother spoke no Korean until Korea 1945 when Japan lost WWII which ended the Japanese occupation of Korea. That's when the allies of WWII Russia and the United States divided Korea into the two halves as they remain today, Democratic People's Republic of Korea and South Korea.

My grandfather was treated well by the family, but he often talks about how scared he was the first time he had to sleep alone in the Japanese family's warehouse. I think that he was treated well, but he doesn't like to talk about that part of his life.

My grandmother was born on February 6, 1932 in Ham Eung in the Ham Kyung Nam Do province way up in North Korea. She was born into one of the most renown and wealthy families of the province. She boasts of her family home that had 7 different gates before the entrance to the family compound and of her family's treasure barn, and a carriage house. She said that independent fighter against the Japanese occupation would secretly visit her home for gold to finance their struggles against the Japanese military. She often speaks about the ocean near her home as she lived near the coast. She is incredibly nostalgic for her childhood and often longs to visit her childhood village although she realizes that may never materialize. She was educated at home with Japanese tutors and spoke no Korean until the Korean War broke out in 1950. She still sings many classical songs in Japanese the way she first learnt them.

All that changed when the Japanese pulled out of Korea as a result of the WWII. And few years later when the Korean War broke out, my grandparents escape to Busan, the southern tip of South Korea. The communists of North Korea had taken over most of South Korea. The course of the war will eventually change with Americans arriving on the scene. Eventually they met and got married to escape the poverty and the harsh realities of a war. My grandfather worked as an interpreter for the American forces and my grandmother did whatever she can to survive. Their experiences during the war and the hardships they went through was indescribably harsh and difficult, but they eventually had 5 children although the eldest died in accident when she was 5. She was wandering the streets when she was hit by a truck.

Despite the tragedy, they worked hard and thrived. In 1961, they bought their first home where my mother was born. She is their surviving second daughter. After the birth of her last child who was finally the son they longed for, my grandmother became dissatisfied with her life. She began to miss her family, her mother and her siblings, two brothers and a sister, who lived in the United States. With her family's urging but against my grandfather wishes she pressed for immigration to the States. They moved to San Francisco in 1970.

Despite the fact that they were hard working people my grandparents were not qualified professionals. My grandfather had eventually gone to college in Korea, but was trained for a career in teaching. So they did what many immigrants turned to, managing a liquor and a grocery store. The hours were long (14,15 hours a day) and the work was very difficult. The life in a foreign country was difficult as my grandfather had envisioned. They had no leisure life to speak of. The only time my grandfather took off from work was the morning of my mother's wedding to my Dad. After the wedding he went back to work until 1 in the morning. That's the kind of work ethic he lives by and you can imagine how hard it was for him to retire when Grandma gave him an ultimatum at age 66.

I was born in 1990 just as my grandfather was getting ready to retire. He first came to LA to help my Mom by taking care of me, and that's the way we became close. He is very easy going and kind and it was this relaxed attitude that made him successful. Yet at same time my grandparents are very naive about the world, and they have trusted people resulting in catastrophic consequences. In the Korean community in SF they participated in "Gae" in which various members pay a monthly amount that is collected in entirety by different members each month. There is always a leader who assumes the responsibility of trust, but in one point in their lives they lost a large amount of money (worth several years of income) to someone they trusted. After that they always remark that they have no luck in money, but that the fortune comes back as blessings for their children and grandchildren. They sincerely believe that. If you give it will return in another way.

That's why my grandparents don't put strong emphasis on being wealthy. The feel money is something you need to live, but wealth is determined at birth. They encourage us to do the best we can in everything we do, to live honestly and generously, but not to struggle against the tides of fortune. According to them life is destined at birth, and one has accept fate.