Dads past

The day Tom found out his father had passed, he began thinking of all the things his father told him in little stories here and there growing up. From hunting small game deep in the woods to his military time and that he might have siblings in Korea.

Little did he ever know that he would one day find some amazing truth in one story.

Tom was a hard worker and very supportive of his children. He never felt complete or that he has done enough in life to help others. His father had passed and he couldn’t make it to the funeral. A few years later he managed to make it down south to collect things from an uncle who also had a military footlocker filled with items from toms father and grandfather for him.

Rifling through the footlocker he came upon a little black notebook with a language on the cover, maybe it’s Korean since my father was there, he thought. It was filled with poems, sketches and little stories from his father.

He came to one page that had some numbers and decimals written with the message, “ my heart is buried here” under them. Figuring his father was an engineer and surveyor they did seem like a point of longitude and latitude.

Upon researching the numbers they came to be in Korea. A forest of an area with what looked like huts and farmland from the google maps view.

Like a lot of things Tom put it on the back burner and continued with life since there’s no way of going to Korea with nothing in savings and what else would one have to do to even travel to a country like that. Just on the edge of north and South Korea was a problem in itself.

A few years have passed and Tom has money saved in hopes of a down payment for a home instead of apartment life forever. He’s going through boxes and comes across the little black notebook again. Turns to the page and stares at the numbers and message for a bit. That’s it, he thinks, I’m going to Korea and see what my dad means by “ my heart is buried here”.

After a round of vaccines and doing some research on where to travel to and getting an interpreter in Korea he is ready to go.

Upon arrival he is greeted by a nice man in his early to mid fifties named Jung-hoon and seems to not be 100% Korean. They sit and chat for a while making a plan of where to go for sightseeing and making their way to where Tom really wants to go, the message. J mentions that he grew up close to the area with his grandparents, as Tom points it out on a map. It will be a thick forest area there he says because our house burned down when I was a baby killing my mother. All I know of my father is that he was an American soldier.

After great food and many new friends made they drive north. They reached jung-hoons grandparents house where he still had some family living. They rested for the night to prepare for the three mile walk through the woods in the morning.

Jung-hoons uncle saw Tom and said, jeimseu?! That’s James in Korean jung-join said and corrected his uncle saying this is Tom. James as I was told was my fathers name. At that moment a rush came over Tom and tears formed in his eyes as he said, that was my fathers name. He served here years before my siblings and I were born.

It clicked to both of them as they stared at each other. Some of the facial features and build in ways seemed the same, the nose was obvious. A huge hug ensued and a long night of talking and taking in everything each could tell of family. Uncle had joined in when the message of my heart is buried here was mentioned. He remembers his sister and James scratching their names in a rock shaped like a heart and burying on top of a box just before he was to be shipped back home.

In the morning they both knew they were looking for a rock just on the side of where the hut used to be next to a big tree. It was hard to find the spot for quite awhile as it was so overgrown and the big tree and been destroyed as well. Digging and poking with sticks and a shovel for half a day til finally the stone was found a few inches under the ground. Underneath a box wrapped in cloths and what seemed like a military pair of pants.

They both knew they were looking at something that their father buried with jung-hoons mother but why? Once opening the box it became even more apparent they had no idea. Wrapped tightly in plastic bags was paper money coins and some jewelry. All Korean but so much it was amazing. There was a letter which didn’t survive too well as some of the won didn’t either.

Jung-hoon could still make out some words and it was buried so when James came back they would move to a nice area and have a family. We both realized that never happened and jungs mother never got the chance to dig it up herself to use.

All in all it was over a little over 44million Korean won and worth in jewelry. Equivalent to $40,000 American dollars after finding a bank and jeweler who would take the money as its age and condition. Jung-hoon split the money with Tom giving him $20,000 as if not for Tom his family here in Korea would never have been able to move from the area they lived without that little black notebook and Toms curiosity.

They said there goodbyes that final day. Looking forward to the facetimes to come with other siblings in America.

Back in the states Tom bought a house with a nice $20,000 down payment and made a special place in his Korean inspired garden for his dad and stepmoms stone.