"As long as you have your health, you'll manage" — My mother's words and 20 years. | Kotori Diary | Episode 18

When my husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given a life expectancy, I was at a complete loss.

There was no life insurance, and my husband had become a guarantor for debts. What was about to begin was a start from a negative balance. I was filled with anxiety about how I would raise our children.

At that time, my mother said over the phone:

"As long as you have your health, you'll manage."

Honestly, at the time, I thought my mother didn't really understand the weight of the debt. I thought that even if you have your health, you can't do anything without money. That's what I believed.
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But there was a deep meaning in my mother's words.

Twenty years have passed since then. I have been able to keep working.
I've had a sickness or two. I've been hospitalized and had surgery. Even so, it happened that they weren't major, life-threatening illnesses. By chance, my body kept moving.

Watching my husband's illness, I learned that health is also a matter of luck. My husband hadn't done anything wrong. Yet, he still became ill.

That is why I believe that being able to keep working was a blessing.

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Even when my children caught the flu and I nursed them, I didn't catch it. The fact that my body could move. How grateful I am for that.
While nursing my husband, while working, while raising my children, I realized that.

--- My mother is now 81 years old.

She is still energetic, doing volunteer work and farm work. She walks to stay healthy. She goes out and gets stimulated.

Of course, my mother has aches and pains and physical ailments too. At 81, she must have various things.

But my mother was someone who would brush them off, saying, "It's just a little something." Her life, too, could not have been smooth sailing.

She says she was doing farm work right up until just before I was born.

My mother herself was someone who practiced "taking care of your body, but moving as long as you can move." That is why I think she was able to say those words.
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I have always told my children:

"You are a treasure. You are Mom's most important treasure."

And now, I think so from the bottom of my heart.

As long as you stay healthy, that is more than enough.

I understand now what my mother meant when she told me, "As long as you have your health, you'll be fine."
The fact that my body can move—it is not something to be taken for granted, but something to be grateful for.

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