She said: “At 7:30 PM tonight. I need to pick Shirah up from school, because she is having a singing performance in school this afternoon.”

I asked: “Can I go to listen to her singing this afternoon?”

“Restrictions on the campus are still high, due to the Covid. It is not easy to attend, but I can ask her.”

I thought a bit and said: “Shirah is so sweet, asking her probably will distract her attention. I better not go, as I don’t want to disturb her.”

In the afternoon, baby Ben went outside for a walk with his parents, I heard he slept the entire time while being outdoors.

After baby Ben came home and after I helped to put him to sleep, I went out to sit on a wooden chair on campus to watch the spring sights and to write my story. Though it was sunny, I felt cold because of the strong wind.

Close to 6:00 PM, I saw my daughter’s message: “Shirah’s performance got cancelled (probably because of Covid). I invited her to come over to sing for us tonight. Can you pick her up before 6:30 PM?”

I texted back: “We were planning to have pork wonton for dinner, should I buy ground beef to make dinner tonight?”

“You pick her up, I can prepare something.”

Due to the singing performance, Shirah, who always dresses up beautifully, was even more graceful today. Her long light brown hair was rolled into an elegant bun matched with a pair of white pearl earrings, and her pink dress matched with a white cardigan sweater. When we came back home, my daughter was chopping carrots and leek to be baked with rice and Alex was cutting chives to fry with eggs. Shirah put her white sweater and bright red handbag on top of my daughter’s scarf and sweater on a chair in the hallway. Looking at this, I felt I was observing a young couple’s little chaotic and very simple home full of vitality and warmth, and I tasted a sweetness.

While playing with baby Ben, I overheard the young ladies’ conversation. My daughter said: “Last time we heard your singing was last year around this time at the garden recital in Rachel’s backyard.”

Shirah replied: “At that time, baby Ben was already conceived, but nobody knew it.”

“My period is always irregular, missing a week or sort is normal. I didn’t know either.” Then my daughter asked Shirah: “Do you want to have dinner first or singing first?”

“It is better not eating before singing.”

After I fed baby Ben 5-oz of breast milk, we all sat down in the dinning room to listen to Shirah sing. Shirah sang an Italian opera song, her voice was smooth, sweet, clean, and with full volume. Baby Ben sat on my lap quietly enjoying his godmother’s beautiful opera performance. After her singing, we applauded for Shirah. I felt our dinner room was filled with a joyful artistic atmosphere.

Due to the time constraint, after Shirah’s singing, our dinner was further simplified: a plate of plain noodles, a plate of chive fried with eggs, and a plate of baked carrot and leek was our dinner. We all enjoyed them.

It was a very happy Friday evening, thankful for the homey little family and for the passionate and talented Shirah’s mini opera concert.

Listening to Concert
Baby Ben’s godmother originally was having a singing performance on Friday afternoon. Because of Covid, the performance was cancelled, and my daughter invited her to sing for us in our home. Baby Ben was engaged and enjoyed the 6-minute beautiful opera voice of his godmother. We all applauded for his godmother.

shirah is singing:

03-01-2020, Monday, raining

Shirah is my daughter’s friend and she is pursuing her Ph.D. with a focus on comparative literature.

The 2020′s quarantine not only reduced the social interaction between ordinary people, but also dramatically changed the full-time college students’s lifestyle, from going to school to attend class, to staying home watching the computer screen to attend class. Because an active social life is a very important part of college life, these sudden changes caused college students who were faraway from home much discomfort. Full-time graduate student Shirah who was faraway from her parents also experienced such discomfort.

My daughter had studied abroad for many years, and she said she had experienced homesickness even during normal social lifetime (such as going to class, meeting teachers and classmates in person, dinning with friends…). So she often walked with Shirah on campus in 2020.

Because Shirah had no car, my daughter and her went shopping together once a week. If my daughter was busy, I would go shopping with Shirah. Gradually, I got to know Shirah as a young girl with a delicate heart. She was always wearing high heels paired with various pretty skirts, I asked her once and knew she never wore pants.

In my mind Shirah was an elegant girl who majored in liberal arts. I never thought that Shirah would become my heroine in 2021.

In the big snowstorm on February 2nd, 2021, my daughter and I were rushing to downtown Boston. After we arrived in Boston, I suddenly remembered that I had not turned off the stove before I left the house.

Considering that driving back home in the big snowstorm would take around an hour, my daughter calmly called our neighbors for help, but some neighbors were already at work and some didn’t answer the phone. My daughter immediately called Shirah and begged her to go to our house to turn off the fire.

Shirah, in her normal outfit, with high heels and a skirt, rushed about a mile in a big snowstorm to our house.

Once she arrived to our front door, my daughter was on the phone with Shirah.

Shirah had difficulty opening our door and I heard her almost crying over the phone.

After Shirah got into the house, my daughter anxiously asked whether our kitchen was on fire?

Shirah replied: “Kara (our darling cat princess) is at the doorway, the kitchen seems fine.”

My daughter anxiously asked: “Did you turn off the fire?”

Shirah said: “Not yet, I am taking my shoes off in the hallway.”

After caming back home, we thanked Shirah. Looking at the dried-up ceramic pot and the shrunken marinated pork belly, I realized that driving back to turn off the fire probably would be too late.

February is already gone and a few days ago, I was talking to my daughter: “Shirah wore high heels and a skirt in a big snowstorm and walked a mile to rescue our house, she is my heroine!”

My daughter replied: “Oh, when I told Shirah that I would save this story for her children later, she joked: ‘Yes, I will need that to boost my image.’”

Little Episodes

The outfits that Shirah wore to rescue our house in the big snowstorm on February 2nd, 2021.
The note that my daughter asked me to put on the door is a constant reminder each time I get out of the house.

February 1st, 2021, weather was the dominant topic on the radio news, because there would be 7 to 15 inches of snow today and tomorrow. The first day of February’s night sight of deep and fluffy snow on the ground and big snow flakes in the air:

02-03-2021, Wednesday, the beginning of spring in the lunar calendar

Nowadays, we all know that cars are indispensable to modern people.

The first snowstorm in February also made us realize how cars are essential towards ensuring our sound living conditions during snowstorms. This led to a joyful and unique blessing for a car: reciting a poem and pouring a bottle of wine.

On Monday, 02-01-2021, the weather report forecasted that there would be 7 to 15 inches of snow within next two days. The local government reminded citizens to stay home to avoid car accidents on the snowy road which would block traffic; it also reminded citizens to bring water and food with them when they have to go out to prevent starvation in the case where they’re stuck in a snowstorm and can’t get help.

On Tuesday morning, 02-02-2021, after I shaved 5 to 6 inches of snow off of and around my car, I got into my car to start it, then I saw a warning sign: “Auxiliary Battery Malfunction”. This is my first time seeing this warning, so I didn’t know how serious the problem was. I was afraid to drive it out during a snowy day and create more problems. We had to drive another car.

Tuesday, a very snowy day, our other car worked hard for us. In the late afternoon, while taking a short cut and driving over a big pile of snow, we suddenly began to hear a constant loud noise coming from the bottom of the car. After parking, we immediately took a close look and found the plastic undercarriage cover had dropped to the ground and it looked like a big opened mouth. The insides of the mouth were filled with snow already. The open mouth plastic undercarriage cover converted our car into a snow gobbler while driving. The constant noise we heard was the snow gobbler gobbling the snow.

On Tuesday evening, two cars, all we have, had problems. After checked online and found “Because the car will still turn on and some functions will still work. The auxiliary battery does not affect the car’s mechanical functions”, My daughter planned loudly: “Tomorrow the first thing is dropping our snow gobbler to the shop. Then I will drive the car with ‘Auxiliary Battery Malfunction’ warning sign to shopping to test it.”

I replied: “OK.”

On Wednesday morning, in order to be the first customer, my daughter dropped our snow gobbler to the shop before the shop was open.

After driving the car with the warning sign to shopping, my daughter said: “Good news, the warning sign is gone now.”

Our snow gobbler was repaired quickly too.

To make sure the “Auxiliary Battery Malfunction” sign is really gone, we did a test drive to the Walden Pond and visited the snowy pond too. The Walden Pond was completed covered with snow which looked like the clouds from the sky had dropped to the earth, very different from the icy ponds and lakes I often saw around. The scenery of the Walden Pond covered with heavy snow appeared very unique to me.

The test drive to the Walden Pond showed that our car was back to normal. We guessed yesterday’s warning sign was related to the cold weather.

On Wednesday evening, all of our cars were back to normal. My daughter was very happy and decided to celebrate our hard work and try to hold onto our good luck: “Let’s use poems and wine to thank our cars for recovering quickly in such a heavy snowstorm and for bringing comfort back to us, also to appreciate them to stay well and be good to us.”

Maybe because I was bored from staying home, I happily replied: “Sure. How to do it?”

My daughter said: “You go to find one of your favorite poems and a bottle of good wine. First, you recite the poem to your car, then you pour the wine all over your car.”

I carefully found the poem I wrote to myself before I graduated from college in 1985, I also took a wine glass out, prepared to pour a glass of good wine.

My daughter said: “Mommy, don’t be so stingy, please use a bottle of good wine, not just a glass of wine.”

Little Episodes

In June 1985, before my college graduation, I wrote a poem to myself and draw the sailboat. In January 2021, my son sent me rainbow roses as birthday gift.

Building the boat and making the sail for 14 years
In a safe haven
Now let’s set out
Will the boat be stable in the ocean wave?
Will the sail be strong in the storm wind?

Who cares, raise the sails
Gather all the strength, let’s sail to the ocean
The world, the sea
14 year’s preparation, Could
Hold out against the ocean wave?
Survive the wind storm?
…
(14 years staying in school: 10 years public education and 4 years college)

Today is the beginning of spring in the lunar calendar. A unique snowy scenery of the Walden Pond in the afternoon. Blessing for a car with a poem and a bottle of good wine in the cold dark night.