Mother's inheritance

One morning, a baby bird learning to fly fell into the yard. It was frightened and chirped, trying to flap its tiny wings to fly. Feeling sorry for it, I picked it up, intending to find a nest to return it. Unexpectedly, it became even more frightened and chirped even louder.

The mother bird heard her baby flying towards her. Seeing her baby in the hands of a person, she could only jump around and cry out in pain. I immediately let the baby bird down to the ground. It happily ran and flapped its wings as it jumped back to its mother. It seemed to be guided by its mother, so the baby bird jumped onto a tree branch and flapped its wings to gain momentum to fly high. I watched the mother and baby bird, suddenly realizing that the baby bird looked a lot like me.

mother's-money.jpg — Illustration photo.

When I first became an adult, I arrogantly thought that I could take care of myself without having to rely on my parents, that I was too old to listen to my parents' scolding. I went to the city and worked, thinking that I would earn money to take care of myself, and earn money to take care of my parents. Who would have thought... After working, I understood the saying "people's food is very hard, it's not like the food my mother eats while sitting down". To earn money, one must sweat and cry. The small salary is nothing compared to the high cost of living in the city. I struggled to save enough to get by. On holidays, if I wanted to buy some gifts to bring home, I had to save for a long time. Only then did I understand the hardship of my parents who had to work hard for years to raise their children to study.

But every time my mother told me to go back to the countryside to find a job to live closer to home to save money, my pride swelled up. I was determined to live a miserable life in the city and refused to return with a failed face, afraid of hearing my parents' nagging. I was determined to pack up and leave and refused to depend on my parents anymore, so I rushed to the city, working day and night just to earn money, to prove to my parents that I could still live well without them.

Years passed, I only knew how to focus on making money, building my own career. When I had a stable job and a stable income, I was complacent with my initial achievements, and I worked even harder, trying to earn as much money as possible to make my parents proud of me. I did not like to hear my mother praise this family's child or that family's child for earning tens of millions a month, building a house, buying a car. Every time I heard my mother praise other people's children, my pride flared up. I arrogantly promised myself that I would do the same as them, that I would make my mother acknowledge my achievements.

And so the years passed.

Just like that, the days I visited home became less and less, the distance between me and my parents grew further and further…

Then the little bird built a new nest one day, chirping next to another bird. Having a small warm home, busy with husband and children made me forget that in that countryside, in that small house, there were two people who gave birth to and raised me and every day waited for me to return. I just thought simply, if I could take care of myself, I would reduce the burden on my parents, that was enough. Every time I returned home for a few days of family reunion, that was enough. I never thought that my parents were very old, in the old house they just waited to see us return, to hear the laughter of their children and grandchildren. That was enough, there was no need for the delicious and strange dishes we brought back because of their old age, high blood pressure and diabetes, they had to abstain from many things.

Birds, once they can fly, usually build new nests and never return to their old ones. The same goes for humans. Anyone who gets married wants to move out and doesn’t want to go back to live with their parents. Being scolded and nagged all day is tiring. Everyone is afraid of living with old people because old people tend to forget things and often compare themselves to other people’s children… So young people often want more freedom, whether they are hungry or full, they still want to live alone.

Only Mom and Dad still miss their children every day, every now and then they open the album and smile to themselves. They used to hear them running, laughing, fighting and crying loudly, but now it's quiet, each one in a different place. Just the other day they were scolding them for being too absorbed in watching TV and not studying, but now they've all become parents. On sunny days, Mom takes the old wooden chest out to dry in the sun. The chest is always locked and kept high up. I thought it contained something valuable, but Mom kept a stack of her children's certificates in it, and every now and then, afraid of termites, she takes it out to dry in the sun. Mom also carefully wipes each page clean with a towel.

One time, on my way to work, I stopped by to visit my mother's house and saw her drying her treasures. I burst into tears. It turns out that to my mother, her children are her greatest treasure. It turns out that she has always been proud of her children, but she just doesn't say it. And, it turns out that she has always missed her children, but they sometimes remember and sometimes forget their mother, and it seems like they forget more than they remember...

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