This touching story took place in mid-September in Busan, South Korea. The police officer named Pak, who started working at the station only in the beginning of the year, was as usually in his workplace. After lunch, he felt tired and almost fell asleep when suddenly he received a call from the chief officer Kim. The call was about a strange old woman who‘d been wandering around one city block for more than an hour.
Pack got in the patrol car and sat off to check on the woman. He had no doubts she had got lost as it often happens with old people. He didn‘t worry — such problems are easily solved.
When he arrived at the spot, he found the lady who was holding two packages. She could not give a clear answer to any question the police asked her. She remembered neither her name nor her adress.
She just kept repeating that her daughter had just given birth in a hospital, but she couldn‘t remember her name too. She was very confused, but she kept the packages clutched to her chest. Soon, Pak realized that the woman was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. The situation was much more complicated than he had expected.
Officer Pak took a picture of the old woman with his cell phone and walked around the block, asking passers-by if they knew her.
After his attempts failed, the officer decided to take the woman to the police station so that she could rest and leave her packages that seemed pretty heavy. He offered her to help with the bags, but she shouted “No!” in response. She did it so loud that the officer was very surprised. He realized the packages were very dear to her.
In a couple of hours, they finally found a person who recognized the woman. Pak found out what her name and address were. He even learned that her daughter had really had a baby and got the adress of the hospital.
After 6 long hours, two officers brought the elderly woman to the hospital to her daughter and grandson. As soon as she saw them, she smiled and began to unpack her packages. What was inside touched everybody in the room to tears.
Inside the packages there was homemade food for her daughter — a cold soup with seaweed, rice and cooked vegetables. In Korea, a hot seaweed soup is traditionally given to women who have recently given birth as the plant contains a lot of calcium.
Officer Pak was deeply moved. The sick old woman who could not remember even her name and address, kept one thingin mind — she had to feed her daughter with a seaweed soup. “Here, eat, dear,” — said the woman to her daughter. She burst into tears when her mother carefully fed her.
This story proves that a mother‘s love is able to overcome any illness and even memory loss.
