#1

"The journal, which he was keeping at the time of his death in 1982, began with an apology. 'With a mixed feeling of fear and excitement, I am afraid that hardly knowing how to spell, I may become a laughingstock for writing this storyƒ.On my second birthday my father passed away. Soon after, I suffered a disease that almost killed meƒ. My mother, Yang Sun Nyo, was a woman of great misfortune; she married four timesƒ. Leaving me in her sister's care in Seoul when I was only an infant, she took all sorts of jobs, including a housemaid, but without much success. Come to think of it, she was only 25. No one can blame her for trying to seek happiness by remarrying. My childhood dream was having a bowl of hot rice."

"Remembering Duk Koo Kim,"