Interesting/Touching Quotes in the Story
"Either a mother and daughter know each other very well, or they are strangers." (p. 17).
"Even though it was more natural for you to favor your left hand and foot, Mom told you that there would be many things to cry about in life if you used your left hand." (p. 35).
"After your children's mother went missing, you realized that it was your wife who was missing. Your wife, whom you'd forgotten about for fifty years, was present in your heart. Only after she disappeared did she come to you tangibly, as if you could reach out and touch her." (p. 122).
"I didn't want to see you living like that, when you had a good education and talent that others envied...you deal with what comes at you head on, without running away, and go forward with your life, but sometimes I was angry about the choices you made." (p. 179).
"You're paved in my heart like an old road. Like the pebbles in a pebble field, dirt in dirt, dust in dust, cobwebs in cobwebs ... if I think about when I first met you, I can see my youthful face." (p. 188).
"When I first brought the tree here, the roots were so scrawny that I kept...doubting that it could even grow in the ground, but when I dug it up to move it, its roods had already spread far underground, tangled. I was impressed with its grit for life, its determination to survive somehow in the barren earth...for the first time, I felt attached to that persimmon tree. My doubts that it could ever have fruit disappeared." (p. 218).
"That woman disappeared, bit by bit, having forgotten the joy of being born and her childhood and dreams...the woman who, at least when it came to her children, wasn't surprised or thrown off by anything. The woman whose life was marred with sacrifice until the day she went missing. You compare yourself with Mom, but Mom was an entire world unto herself." (p. 231).
"Even though it was more natural for you to favor your left hand and foot, Mom told you that there would be many things to cry about in life if you used your left hand." (p. 35).
"After your children's mother went missing, you realized that it was your wife who was missing. Your wife, whom you'd forgotten about for fifty years, was present in your heart. Only after she disappeared did she come to you tangibly, as if you could reach out and touch her." (p. 122).
"I didn't want to see you living like that, when you had a good education and talent that others envied...you deal with what comes at you head on, without running away, and go forward with your life, but sometimes I was angry about the choices you made." (p. 179).
"You're paved in my heart like an old road. Like the pebbles in a pebble field, dirt in dirt, dust in dust, cobwebs in cobwebs ... if I think about when I first met you, I can see my youthful face." (p. 188).
"When I first brought the tree here, the roots were so scrawny that I kept...doubting that it could even grow in the ground, but when I dug it up to move it, its roods had already spread far underground, tangled. I was impressed with its grit for life, its determination to survive somehow in the barren earth...for the first time, I felt attached to that persimmon tree. My doubts that it could ever have fruit disappeared." (p. 218).
"That woman disappeared, bit by bit, having forgotten the joy of being born and her childhood and dreams...the woman who, at least when it came to her children, wasn't surprised or thrown off by anything. The woman whose life was marred with sacrifice until the day she went missing. You compare yourself with Mom, but Mom was an entire world unto herself." (p. 231).