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Inori
When I told my mother, “You’re over 100 years old,” she said, “Wow, I’m over 100 years old. That’s amazing. I’ve forgotten how old I am, but I remember my birthday very well, November 25th, 1910.”
“I’m glad you’ve lived a long life. You’re the longest-lived person in this town,” I continued, and she replied, “Living a long life isn’t a good thing. You have to die in moderation. There are good and bad things about living a long life.” It’s not that being old is good, but if everyone is living in moderation, you can die whenever you want. When I said, “So everyone is living in moderation, so you can die whenever you want,” she laughed and said, “That’s true, but it’s a problem, because you can’t die unless you get sick.”
It must have been around 1930 or 1931 when my mother married my father in Ushigome, Tokyo. My father was in the transportation business on a large scale, and she told me something surprising: he would go to the Ueno department store by car instead of by train to shop. Cars must have been much more valuable back then than they are now.
About 35 years ago, I went sightseeing in Tokyo with my family. I thought we would go to the Imperial Palace because we were tourists. When I asked her, “Where do you want to go? Maybe the Imperial Palace?” she knew the Imperial Palace well. My wife and I looked at each other as she answered that Disneyland and Tokyo Tower were good.
Soon after she got married, my father’s sister got tuberculosis, and my mother also got infected and developed rib caries. When we were blessed with several children, the war intensified and the company’s cars and drivers were conscripted, so we returned to our hometown. I know the life after the war well. My mother worked hard from morning to night. She never got sick.
She lost two children before the war, her husband died 30 years ago, and seven years ago she lost her eldest son who lived with her, and she continues to this day.
My mother’s prayers are pure now. They are the color of the deep, deep azure sky and sea.
They are a pure blue color that is a combination of cobalt blue and ultramarine.