Ryan's Journal

I have many things to write and none of them relate to one another. However, I won't write "My First Funeral," so allow me to leave my reactions as private and the affair as complete. Life goes on, it always does.

Let me tell you what I learned on this trip instead. My dashing grandfather and rather adorable grandmother were married for a good, long time, living in Shanghai and starting their family with my father, their firstborn. Eventually they moved to Swatow City. My grandfather made very little. With some financial support from her brother and persistence of her own, my grandmother started to educate herself and raise her children, which grew to a total of four. They eventually emigrated to Toronto, my father to Minnesota, and she and my grandfather continued to educate themselves by taking English classes, so they could live indepedently in their adopted home and so they could communicate with their sometimes Cantonese-deficient grandchildren. There are a good number of pictures documenting their life together, and life with the family after my grandfather passed away ten years ago; perhaps I'll get to scan and preserve them someday. She prayed twice a day and woke up early to exercise all her life. She ate healthy and walked with God.

So pardon the lack of personal involvement in the above - it's a recounting, not a reflection.

Seeing the family again was good. This is the third time I've been to Toronto in about as many months. I managed to convince at least one cousin that visiting me and my sister and brother-in-law in Boston is a good idea, so perhaps she'll come in the next couple of months. The other cousin old enough to travel independently may come sometime too, but I think I need to work on her and her husband a little more.

I suppose I'll stop for now. To those interested in the job hunt, I'm likely going out to Nokia later today to start an internship. They didn't interview me and haven't really talked to me about anything besides minor logistical issues. This could be interesting.

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