Mom Was a Mom

No. 395 The story introduced this time

Here, we feature stories that have become topics on the internet or in the news as "heartwarming stories that bring tears to your eyes," along with videos uploaded to YouTube and other platforms.

The story introduced this time is a post by a woman who was surprised to learn that her mother was a snack bar hostess, and at the same time, felt grateful for how she had raised her.

There was a YouTube video based on this story, so I will introduce it as well.

Regarding the posting date

Summary siteI was able to confirm the post on February 9, 2016, but I apologize if this is incorrect.

Post content

I will post it including the responses. The woman's post is in bold.

618 : Kijo Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 18:43:51 ID:hBN
The fact that my mother was a snack bar hostess

My mother divorced my father when I was a baby, and after that, I lived with my grandparents and my mother.

By the time I was old enough to understand things, my mother explained that she worked at a "cafeteria."

She would leave the house by bus in the evening and return by taxi after I had fallen asleep at night; that was our life.

But I wasn't lonely.

At night, I would watch period dramas with my grandparents and sleep with my grandmother, and in the morning, my mother would wake up earlier than me to make a luxurious Western-style breakfast for us all to eat together.

Usually, dinner also consisted of side dishes my mother had prepared in advance, and her beef stew made without roux and her potato salad were especially delicious.

I thought maybe she was good at cooking because she worked at a cafeteria.

I also mistakenly thought that the taxi my mother used every day was an inexpensive mode of transport.

Thinking about it now, she must have spent 4,000 to 5,000 yen every night, so it was quite a large sum.
When I was in the upper grades of elementary school, my mother explained, "Actually, I don't work at a cafeteria, but in the kitchen of an izakaya."

I think she said that so I wouldn't be suspicious, as I had started to recognize the smell of cigarettes and alcohol.

I attended a private girls' school from junior high.

When I jokingly asked, "Mom, are you actually rich?", my mother replied that it was my grandparents' pension.

I went to a university outside the local area and started living alone.

She sent me money for rent and living expenses, so I didn't need a part-time job.

Around that time, she also built a new house.

I wasn't a child anymore, so I started to wonder, what is this financial leeway?

I thought, maybe my father is paying child support? I decided not to ask until my mother told me, out of consideration for her feelings.

I found a job locally.

When my colleagues and I decided to have a drinking party, I searched on my mobile phone for "izakaya, food, delicious, [station name]."

It was an era before gourmet information sites were comprehensive, and what came up was a personal blog.

A sentence like "A downtown snack bar where you can taste home-cooked flavors, the hostess's talk and potato salad are exquisite!" caught my eye, and although it wasn't a place for a drinking party with colleagues, for some reason I was interested and opened the page.

My mother's potato salad uses unique ingredients, and it was exactly the same as the one introduced in that blog.

And I was also curious that the hostess of that snack bar was introduced as "a friendly, beautiful hostess with a short haircut!"

My mother has a short haircut and doesn't wear makeup, but she is often complimented on being beautiful.

That was all, but I was already convinced: this is my mom!

620 : Kijo Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 19:14:52 ID:hBN
From there, it was fast.

When I searched for the name of that snack bar, my mother's photo came up easily.

My mother wasn't using her real name; she was a hostess under a name that changed the reading of the "○" part of her name.

The blog's (I wonder if it was called a text site back then) reputation was also good, and as expected, the potato salad was popular.

I was nervous and surprised, but I was also convinced, as it wasn't that unexpected.

I thought I would pretend not to know until my mother told me herself.

......But, I couldn't hold it in and brought it up to my mother the next day.

"Mom, are you a mom? A snack bar hostess?"

"Oh boy, you found out! When did you know?" my mother laughed.

When I answered that it was yesterday, from there, my mother told me various truths.

My father had an affair immediately after marrying my mother when they were both twenty and got a high school girl pregnant, so they divorced, but later my father abandoned that high school girl too and disappeared.

She didn't receive a single cent.

My mother was confident in her cooking, conversation, liver capacity, and accounting (she graduated from a commercial high school and held a bookkeeping level 2 certificate), so she persuaded my grandparents that she wanted to run a snack bar to raise me without any hardship and to save money for my grandparents' old age (my mother was an only child).

My grandparents provided their savings to start the shop, but they had resistance to the nightlife industry and made it a condition that "it must not be found out by the grandchild."

My mother thought, "It will be found out soon anyway, and it's easier to work if it's known," but I was too slow to notice, and it didn't get out, and conversely, she couldn't bring herself to say it, leading to the present.

The snack bar got on track and is now stable, and she now employs three girls.

That weekend, I immediately visited my mother's shop.

It was a bright-feeling shop where neither my mother nor the girls were dressed up at all, and all kinds of menus were posted on the walls inside, making it feel more like an izakaya than a snack bar.

But the set price was relatively high (food was charged separately).

Customers kept coming one after another, but when an elderly regular customer arrived late, my mother introduced me happily, saying, "This is my [Name]!" and started crying.

Then that man also started crying for some reason, I was drawn into it and cried too, and the girls at the shop also cried for some reason...

And then it became funny, and we all burst into loud laughter.

That man was a regular from the time it opened, and it seems he knew me by seeing photos and hearing stories since I was a baby.

It was a strange feeling to have someone I didn't know at all know me, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling.

Since then, I would go to help at the shop when I was free, but last year, my mother handed the shop over to an employee and retired, and now she is excited about her dream of early retirement, working hard on travel and hobbies!

I got married the year before last, and when I make the potato salad with my mother's recipe, my husband is overjoyed.

In many ways, I have nothing but gratitude for my mother lol.

621 : Kijo Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 19:25:34 ID:pFU
>>620
If possible, I would like to know the recipe for that potato salad... is that impossible?

622 : Kijo Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 19:30:42 ID:hBN
>>621
I'm sorry...

Even though it's delicious, it's more for drinkers and not a recipe that appeals to everyone, and the key ingredient is something you would never normally put in potato salad, and even now, if you google "that ingredient + potato salad + snack bar," the shop's name comes up, so orz

623 : Kijo Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 19:37:40 ID:pFU
>>622
No, no, I'm sorry too.
I just asked because I was interested, even though I thought that might be the case.
You have a very charming mother.

624 : Kijo Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 19:39:34 ID:hBN
>>623
No, no, I'm really the one who should be sorry...!

Also, I forgot to write something important.

It was also quite a shock that I had a half-sister.

However, regarding this, my mother, who is a chatterbox, doesn't want to talk about it, so I haven't met her yet.

If she comes to see me, I would like to meet her, though.

625 : Demon Woman Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 19:58:03 ID:N3u
What a touching story.

626 : Demon Woman Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 20:21:56 ID:hxL
>>622
She wasn't blessed with a husband, but it seems like good customers and girls gathered around your mother.
I'm glad to hear she retired without ruining her health and is spending her days in fulfillment lol

627 : Demon Woman Diary 2016/02/09 (Tue) 21:19:11 ID:1s3
At the part about her talk and her liver, I briefly thought she had sold her liver lol

Video

I would like to introduce a video that was created based on this story.

(2ch) Laughing, Crying, and Heartwarming 'LAN' (Channel)

Yukkuri 2ch Narratives (Channel)

In Conclusion

My note articles are not intended for profit.
I am simply writing these articles because I want to share stories that moved me to tears with all of you.

However, if there are any issues regarding 'copyright' or similar, please let me know and I will delete them.

Also, please note that the linked sources, summary sites, past logs, and videos may have broken links due to various circumstances of the site operators or video creators, so please forgive me if that happens.

Furthermore, the images posted were provided by Irasutoya and Minchirie.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.