Weiyue Lin-Week 7

      Kieu Linh Caroline Valverde documents a recollection of different events that shaped her livelihood in the article. She focuses on a perspective that seeks to understand why her mother would not love her as other parents do and why she opted to desert the narrator at a young age. The article begins with a recollection of the time when the narrator’s mother dropped her off at her grandparent’s place in Sai Gon. She documents the pain she felt when her mother sped off in a black sedan and never looked back. The narrator constructed the image of who she believed was her mother from a series of photographs and memories shared by her grandmother. The void in her childhood impacted her later years and ignited immense curiosity that manifested in her spiritual realm.

       Kieu’s dreams seemed to have crushed on the day that she witnessed her mother drive off to follow her dreams. She led a life influenced by the belief that the relationship with her mother was non-existent. Over the years, her grandparents would tell stories of Kieu’s mother’s characteristics that partly filled the void left by immense curiosity and the need for maternal love. She felt alienated from someone who should have loved her unconditionally. As she grows older, she learns some truths that help her cope with the inconsistencies in her upbringing. The spiritual encounter proves that her aunt, who treated her better than the alleged mother, is indeed her parent. The narrator makes sense of the world after this revelation, but it seems too late because she dies shortly after. Sometimes the spirit world can help us reconcile our past.