A Fa's Memoir

On Qingming, I honor my ancestors and at last fulfill my dream;

I pick up my pen to remember her kindness and write of the past.

For half my life, she sheltered me through wind and rain;

A memoir filled with love, written on a single sheet.

[Preface to A Fa's Reminiscences of His Grandmother]

[Though the grass is small, its heart remembers the sun; I will always cherish my grandmother's love.]

Another Qingming Festival has come. A fine rain falls as I stand silently before my grandmother's grave, my fingertips tracing the cold gravestone. Countless thoughts surge through me, and for a long time I cannot calm myself. Year after year, I come here to pay my respects, my heart heavy with gratitude and longing. The memories buried deep in the past, the sight and sound of Grandma, the hardships she told me about from her life, always rise up without warning, bringing tears to my eyes.

My parents divorced when I was three, and from then on, fate placed me entirely in my grandmother's hands. She had little schooling, but with the simplest and most steadfast love, she took on the roles of both mother and father and raised me through every hardship. From my earliest childhood memories, to carrying my schoolbag into primary school, enduring the long years of middle school, graduating from high school, entering the workforce, and finally building a home, marrying, and having children, Grandma held my hand through every important step of my life. She scrimped and saved to put me through school, mended my clothes late at night, comforted me when I suffered setbacks, and guided me when I was lost. She devoted all her tenderness and effort to me. Without her, I would not have the secure and happy life I have today. Her care in raising me is as weighty as a mountain, and I could spend my whole life trying to repay it without ever returning even a fraction.