I spent all my childhood life with her, not with my mother or my dad. My dad was sick mentally so my mum divorced him and carried me off to take care of me. But because we were poor, mum ventured out to work and left me with grandma.
My mother had a hard life too. She grew up in a big family of six without a proper dad. It was the War in the 1970s that robbed my grandma of her first husband, who was a soldier. When her first husband passed away, she had three children already. And she was in her late twenties. The war dragged on and there was support from anyone. Although her late husband's family was rich, they were landowners, they didn't exactly give grandmamuch money. Partly because of the numerous sisters in-law that grandma had. These people didn't like her.. just the usual hatred between sisters in law.
So grandma left the countryside where she lived with her late husband for the city. Here, she was given a house by the late husband's family to live in. The house was a small one, suffcient for the family of four, grandma and her three children.
The war was cruel. Grandma used to relate how in the same family, her late husband and his brother were at the opposite sides of the war. Her husband was agaisnt the Communist and his brother was for the communist. So somehow the communist or the anti-communist didn't trust the whole family, they plotted and killed the two brothers, separately.
One day, the anti communist husband did not return home after his mission for almost 2 days. Grandma was nervous. The superior people in the army couldn't find him anywhere either. He was a corporal, so when he set out, he brought with him a small unit of 3 to 4 people. None of these people were home either.
So naturally everyone got nervous.
Grandma told us a very incredible story. She told us how she dreamt of grandpa came backin his shorts and told her where he was. He told her that the communists had shot and stripped him and everyone in the unit to their shorts. The communists robbed their uniform so that they can use later on. When grandma woke up, she told the other people where to find their corpses, and indeed, all the dead had only their shorts on them.
It was incredible. But it was how my grandpa's corpse was found. Sometimes things are just beyond our understanding. The dead may come back. But probably because they have something to tell us. Just as we cannot hear ultrasound, and see infra red light, it's not sufficient to argue that these things do not exist. Maybe we have not really the real mean to detect them.
But that asides, I don't think we should be fearful or let these thoughts occupy our mind all the time.
Back to my grandma's story. Grandma struggled for many years on. Being a single mother in the war time was not easy. She tried to seek help from her own relatives. .
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