Auntie Tama 玉 鳳 姨
She took me to church when I was in elementary school.
She used to take me with her whenever she went to the movies,
since I was n't big enough to purchase a ticket.
She is my aunt but more like my big sister.
Thirteen years senior to me, she had been my mentor for many years.
She and her husband, my uncle, just celebrated their 45th anniversary.
I remembered her wedding day, December 23, two days in prior toChristmas.
The church was full of Christmas decoration then.
I saw it in the picture my father took at the wedding.
I didn’t go to Puli to attend the wedding. I was only a child.
Children stayed home. I stayed home and cried for two days.
The first time in my life I experienced the pain of departing from the one
you loved.
My love to Auntie Tama began when we lived together under the same roof
in a big house called “The Garden” in which I was born.
There was a huge well in the center of the kitchen.
We dropped the tin bucket into the well to drag up water
I was told the bad children would be dumped into the well
and drowned to death by the witch at
My parents moved to the city from the eastern coast and looked for
a cheap house to settle down.
Auntie Tama’s parents also moved into the city from LuKang
to look for opportunities.
Two families shared the big house and established the life-long relationship.
We are all related to that rich relative. Mom called Tama’s mom “Auntie”.
Tama calls my mother “big sister”. Tama becomes my “aunt”.
I called her mom “ great auntie”.
Great auntie died at age 39 of caner. I didn’t remember her well, but I did remember her funeral.
Great auntie had only two children, Tama and her younger brother Jin-Zo.
A band of eulogists played the trumpet next to the coffin.
My brother and I stood at the window watching the band marching on.
Auntie Tama inheritated her mom’s business at the First market.
She owned a stand selling odds and ends to women.We moved out of the Garden after my father made a fortune
and bought his first house by printing the fake tobacco box.
I was four.
I waited at the front door every morning for Auntie Tama to pass by
on her way to the first market.
She carried her lunch box wrapped with a flora cloth.
She always stepped into our house to greet my mother first.
They talked a little then she continued her journey.
Vietnam War brought many American soldiers and their families to
Auntie Tama bought a bike. She rode the bike to work.
Soon she spoke fluent English.
She often brought us many interesting things and stories.
She told me the bathroom of Americans didn’t smell stink.
The American women were called “Hens” by her and her fellow Taiwanese
workers.
Auntie Tama’s brother, my uncle Jin-Zo, was an artist. Her sister was his model.
I remember an oil painting of Auntie Tama by Uncle Jin-Zo.
Before he started his service in the Navy.
my father took him to his printing company to do the job of drawing.
I was sure that Uncle Jin-Zo would be a famous artist some day.
But he lived too short to make his dream come true.
My mom was the first one reading the news of his death from the morning newspaper.He died when his boat was rescuing a trapped ship.
Her only brother’s death was a big blow to Auntie Tama.
On the same day, she met her future husband.
Later, Auntie Tama told me that God gave her another good man to
replace her brother. Her husband loves arts and painting, too.
She had become a Christian.
God granted her a good husband, two great children. four grand children.
She has lived a very happy life
since the day she married My cousin took over his father’s business to run the spectacle shopwhile his sister marries a nice guy and lives happily in
I visited Auntie Tama last Saturday.
She was happy to see me. I was happy to see her, too.
She told me that her daughter-in-law will be baptized the next day.
Now I look back and realize that she is the wise woman in Proverbs of Bible.
原來如此 我好像跟你不同個時代