Mother had only one eye. I hated her because she was such an embarrassment. My mother ran a small shop at a flower market to make a living.

During elementary school, I remember that my mother attended sports day. I felt embarrassed that she even turned up for the event.
How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran away. Everyone at school jeered at me the next day:

"Your mother has only one eye?!"

They continued to taunt me for years.

At that moment, I wished that my mother would just disappear from the face of this earth. I went home and shouted at her, "Mom, why do you have only one eye?! You're making me a laughing stock! Why don't you just die?!"

She just kept quiet. I felt bad for uttering those words, but at the same time, it felt good to release all that I had withheld within me for so long. I did not consider whether or not I had hurt her feelings. This was probably because mother did not punish me.

When I woke up in the middle of the night that night, I made my way to the kitchen to get a glass of water. I saw my mother crying at the corner quietly as though she was afraid that she might wake me. Despite that, I hated my mother who was only crying out of her one eye.

I told myself that I would grow up and be successful because I hated our poverty and my one-eyed mother. For this, I studied really hard.

The day came when I had to leave to the city to study in the university. Few years later, I got married and settled down in a big house with my wife and children. I never bothered to go home to where I came from. I am now free from anything that reminds me of my mother.

However, on one rainy day, someone came to see me. It was my mother, still with her one eye. My whole world fell apart when she arrived at our gate. My daughter who was afraid of my mother's eye ran away to my wife's arms.

I screamed, "WHO ARE YOU?! I DO NOT KNOW YOU!" and chased her away.

"HOW DARE YOU COME HERE TO SCARE MY DAUGHTER! GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

The old lady apologised and disappeared.

Few years later, I attended a secondary school reunion. As I passed by the old hut, a place that I used to call home once upon a time, I entered only to find my mother lying lifeless on the cold floor. Still, I did not shed a tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand. That was a letter for me.

"My son, it is time for me to go.I am sorry that I turned up at your house uninvited, but I missed you so much. I was so happy when I heard you were coming back to attend the reunion, but I know that you would not want me to see me there. I am sorry that I was an embarrassment for you all these years. I know you hate me for having only one eye. But my dear child, you must know something. When you were very little, you were involved in an accident and lost your eye. As a mother, I could not bear watch you having to grow up with only one eye, so I gave you mine. I was so proud that my son was going to see a whole new world on my behalf, in my place, with that eye. I was never upset at you for all the things you did to me. I missed you and the times when you were still around me. You mean the world to me. I love you!"

My world shattered. It was too late. My mother is no longer around for me to beg for forgiveness. She sacrificed for me, and I did not even know it.


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