Two Centuries

Today Lina got to spend some time with her only great-grandparent, my maternal grandmother or "oba-jiang" as I grew up calling her. Out of a possible eight great-grandparents, she is the only one alive. She is 93 (I think), and in amazing mental shape. Well, she tends to repeat the same stories over and over, but so do I and I'm 32. I tried to snap some photos of my 93 years old grandmother, crouched on her knees, playing with Lina. What a special moment. Two women, representing a span of four generations, 90+ years apart. Their lifetimes, God-willing, will cover a span of almost two centuries of history. Amazing. I had a lot of thoughts stem from this moment, as you can imagine. Obajiang was born towards the end of World War I in Taiwan, studied in Japan, came back to Taiwan after her mother died (while she was on the boat back), got married to Ojijiang, moved to Qingdao, China for several years during the 2nd World War, stranded in Shanghai for several months after the end of the war, waiting for a boat to return to Taiwan, had a few kids in Taiwan, and then moved to Japan where my grandfather practiced medicine. (When I started that sentence I wasn't planning to write an entire biography). Anyway, my point is that it's amazing how much she has gone through, and how much history she lived through. She has spent the last decade or more here in the US where her two daughters are. And so, almost a century after she was born in a little village in Taiwan, she is living in California, spending some time with her 8 week old great-granddaughter.

I was holding Lina the other day and was just wondering about her life. She was probably fretting a bit so I told her what I always tell her, "it's ok, daddy's here, daddy got you." And I started to think that there would be times when I won't be able to be around. (I know it's early to start thinking these things!) School. School can be a traumatic place. What about the first time she gets teased? Or the first time she feels left out in P.E. - I'm guessing she won't be the tallest kid in the class and therefore won't be picked first for basketball or volleyball teams? What about her first failure of some kind? First crush and broken heart? (I shudder). And all this while I'm alive (hopefully). On a side note, I got paranoid before my last business trip and finally entered into a term insurance thing. So if I kick the proverbial bucket prematurely, they'll be set! No crazy ideas, please. Gives me peace of mind though. Anyway, there will also be a time after Liz and I are gone (naturally) when she will start to grow old and go through who knows what. I wonder if someday she will be 93, and taking a picture with her great-granddaughter in 2101.

And maybe her grandson will write something in his blog (or whatever crazy 3-D holographic mind-reading technology they have then)..."My grandmother was born in 2008 in America, at the beginning of a very challenging economic time for the world with gas prices about to hit $10/gallon, but right before the first Black president of the United States (and the first of many minority Presidents)...she grew up her first few years on the West side of Los Angeles surrounded by cousins and family, and then...."