Heirlooms by Sandra Byrd

Author:Sandra Byrd [Byrd, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Contemporary, FICTION / Women
ISBN: 9781496426901
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2022-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

A few weeks later, Eunhee sat at the kitchen table rolling and shaping the dough for the rice cakes they would eat the next day, September 27, to celebrate Chuseok. Bowls of honeyed sesame paste she and Helen had pounded together sat nearby so Eunhee could stuff the cakes as soon as they were ready to be folded into pretty half-moon dumplings.

“So is this like the American Thanksgiving?” Helen asked, rocking the bassinet slightly to quiet Mi-Ja.

“Not so much. Chuseok means ‘on the eve of autumn.’ It’s a time when Koreans give thanks to their ancestors for a good harvest.”

“Not to God?”

“God, for me,” Eunhee said. “I do not worship my ancestors, but I am grateful to them for the sacrifices they made for me. I will sacrifice for my family too. The one I have in Korea and the one I will have here.”

She eyed Helen carefully, noting, it seemed, her starched nurse’s uniform—which she’d purchased as a civilian and then kept. It hadn’t been worn for three weeks. “Are you going to check in at your job before you go to the mainland?”

“Not today.” Instead, Helen hoped the uniform would add to the sense of authority when she showed up to check out the facilities available for Mi-Ja. She wanted the truth if this was a good place or not, and she hoped to learn that by pretending to be on a professional mission.

Eunhee turned her hand back to the ingredient-laden table. “Our traditions say that if a woman can make a pretty songpyeon—” she touched one of the green rice cakes—“she will have beautiful children too.”

Helen leaned down and wrapped her finger around Mi-Ja’s small finger. “You make beautiful songpyeon and beautiful babies.”

“I will teach you to make songpyeon. So Lauri, too, will be very pretty. Tonight, when you return home.” A waver in her voice betrayed her anxiety about Helen’s fact-finding mission. “We need to collect the pine needles so we can steam the cakes over them.”

Helen nodded. “Don’t worry. At the institution today, I will see if I find the help we need. Then I will come straight home and not be late. Call Johanna if there is a hint of trouble for you or for Mi-Ja.”

Helen steered the Buick, top up, northward, and then across the Deception Pass Bridge to the mainland, where the institution was located. The bridge represented how she felt spanning two worlds, one where care was available for all, or so she’d thought, and one where there seemed to be little available for the neediest among them. Two hours later, she arrived at the long, shrub-lined drive leading to low-slung, single-story buildings, arranged in a star pattern, very much like a military base.

She parked in visitor parking and headed toward the main door. The building was clean enough but certainly seemed like a hospital or base, not a home. That’s why it’s called an institution, Helen. Visitors were not usually allowed, but she hoped her credentials would get her in so she could make an honest assessment on behalf of Eunhee.

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