August 5th

Last Saturday, August 5th, was my mom’s memorial day. Every year on that day, we talk about how many years it has been since she passed away. On the morning of the day, we chatted on the family LINE app, “It’s been 18 years already.” At that moment, my brother Seina said, “I’ve realized that the part of our lives without Mom has become longer.” It’s true; Seina was only 13 back then.

On that day, we went to visit Mari-chan with the kids, holding flowers and sending our greetings like, “Are you doing well? Are you watching over us from the sky?” Mari-chan never got to meet her six grandchildren, which is truly unfortunate.

But as I might have mentioned somewhere before, if Marichan hadn’t passed away, I wouldn’t have returned to my hometown, and if I hadn’t been living in Shimanto, Emmet wouldn’t have worked here either. There’s an indirect and incredible connection between us. That means I wouldn’t have met Fionn, and if I hadn’t been in Shimanto, there wouldn’t have been an opportunity for that. I’m really grateful for this fate.

To briefly explain, when the owner of the English conversation school where Emmet later worked was looking for a new teacher, he chose Emmet from three resumes, including that of an American guy who was already working there. The reason was that he thought, “This guy wouldn’t be Rina’s type.” He apparently had a crush on me and wanted to avoid having a love rival, so he chose Emmet, who was the complete opposite. But it turned out that Emmet and I fell in love, which he didn’t find amusing. He called Emmet out during the early days of our relationship and confessed about his intention.

Quite dramatic, right? If he had chosen someone he simply liked as a coworker at the school, Emmet might have gone to Shizuoka or Hokkaido. But destiny led him to Shimanto, and on the second day of his move, he met me while waiting at a traffic light. The subsequent events were also pretty dramatic. You really can’t predict people’s destinies.

But as Emmet said recently, there’s a saying in the Bible that all events are not coincidences but necessities. Indeed, we face various challenges and experiences in life, but we always help each other and overcome them together. It’s probably because of the way Emmet is always there for me that I feel our meeting might have been guided. I’m not religious myself, so I don’t understand these teachings much, but Emmet, being Irish, comes from a Catholic family. Sometimes he shares wonderful words and ways of thinking, which I find valuable. I’m determined to incorporate these positive philosophies into my life.

Certainly, this destined encounter, guided by God and my mom, is something I treasure. We’ll continue to live harmoniously as a loving family.