My Grandmother's 6th Memorial Service, and I'm Laughing Again ①: Wait, You Built Kinkaku-ji?

My grandmother had always loved history.

She also loved watching period dramas, and whenever a history program came on, she would watch the TV with a serious expression.

Around the time her dementia began to progress.

She started having trouble calculating money and repeating the same stories.

The family was also starting to feel the accumulated fatigue of caregiving.

One day, there was a special feature on Kyoto on TV.

Seeing Kinkaku-ji on the screen, my grandmother suddenly said this.

"I built this, you know."

The family froze.

Wait, hold on.

What era was she living in?

But my grandmother was completely serious.

She looked at the Golden Pavilion with a hint of pride.

For my grandmother, who loved history, perhaps the memories of her long life and the images on television had connected somewhere.

The days of caregiving weren't always pretty.

My parents were exhausted, and there were days when the whole family felt like we had nothing left to give.

Even so, for that one moment, we all laughed out loud together.

The tense atmosphere suddenly eased.

Even now, whenever our family talks about Kyoto, it always comes up.

"Grandma built the Golden Pavilion, didn't she?"

The seventh memorial service is coming up soon.

I've been thinking about this lately.

My grandmother really managed to leave behind laughter even in the midst of 'hard times' until the very end.

I have a few more funny stories about my grandmother, so I'll share them with you😊