{"id":253,"date":"2021-03-10T04:26:51","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T04:26:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/?page_id=253"},"modified":"2021-03-10T04:28:51","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T04:28:51","slug":"heijin-lee","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/?page_id=253","title":{"rendered":"Heijin Lee"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sharon Heijin Lee is Henry and Sunny’s niece. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Aunt and Uncle\u2019s Love in Three Parts by S. Heijin Lee<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.\u00a0Gomo (Aunt Sunboo) and Gomoboo\u00a0(Uncle Henry) were truly caretakers of all of us. As more of our family immigrated, they made sure everyone else got adjusted financially, culturally, and logistically. But as the daughter of Gomo’s youngest sibling, I was too young to know those specificities of our family\u2019s early days in the US. Instead, my memories are abstract clouds of familial love, comforts and tastes: I remember spending nights at Gomo\u2019s in Indiana (one of the first places I felt comfortable sleeping without my parents), making cookies with\u00a0Carol Unni and going to the Purdue newsroom with David Obba, watching Chester cross the street on her own and marveling that Gomo lived with a dog. I remember holding my first violin as Gomo tried to assess whether I had the makings of a future prodigy J Gomo\u2019s love and care manifested in platters of her homemade bindaedduk<\/em> and bowl after bowl of her delicious naengmyun<\/em>, unparalleled at any restaurant in the US or South Korea. I remember what a revelation it was when I learned that these are quintessentially North Korean dishes and that these are ours because we are a North Korean family. It was like finding a piece of myself that I never knew I didn\u2019t know because those had always been, and continue to be, my favorite foods. This was the food she served when she hosted a luncheon at her house the day after my wedding. This is the food of our family that I will always remember her by; bindaedduk<\/em> and naengmyun<\/em> will always be the taste of Gomo\u2019s love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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2. As I got older, Gomoboo was the only family member of my parents’ generation who really understood what a career in academia meant. He translated my pursuits to my parents, letting them know, for instance, that a fellowship I\u2019d won was a \u201cbig deal.\u201d Like the many times he\u2019d translated English or American culture for our relatives, he translated university life for my parents. And when he said “Congratulations!” to me for finally landing that tenure track job or patted Dean on the back for achieving tenure, the pride he expressed meant everything because we knew that he knew exactly the mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual hoops we\u2019d just jumped through. So much of gyopo<\/em> life is defined by the inability to know or be known so Gomoboo\u2019s knowing made me feel profoundly seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. More recently, when Gomo and Gomoboo came over to my parents\u2019 home to share a meal, they brought over a bright yellow Lamborghini, just big enough for two toddlers. For the next two years, my then 3-year-old drove that Lamborghini all around his grandparents\u2019 home with his 1-year-old sister on the passenger side. From that day on, Gomo and Gomoboo became known affectionately and famously in our house as \u201cYellow car Halmuhni (Grandmother) and Harabuhji (Grandfather).\u201d My father talked with his sister regularly and while we couldn\u2019t see them this last year during the pandemic, Gomo never hung up without speaking to my kids, Hyun and Yuna who she lavished with praise. Seeing how much Gomo and Gomoboo could love my children made me understand just how much they loved me and my father before me. I find great joy knowing that Hyun and Yuna knew them, too, and in this way, Gomo and Gomoboo\u2019s continue to shape the fabric of our family just as they always have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sharon Heijin Lee is Henry and Sunny’s niece. An Aunt and Uncle\u2019s Love in Three Parts by S. Heijin Lee 1.\u00a0Gomo (Aunt Sunboo) and Gomoboo\u00a0(Uncle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-253","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/253\/revisions\/257"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/limmemorial.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}