Around 6pm that day, Sumie's mother returned home from work. "I'm back! Hey, what did you buy? Aren't the baby clothes cute?" she said, as she hurried off to put her grocery shopping in the kitchen.
But there was no reply. When he went upstairs, he found Sumie unconscious in bed.
The next day, Sumie woke up in her hospital room. When she saw her mother's face, she asked anxiously, "Where am I? What happened?" Sumie only remembered feeling sick and lying down.
The mother looked at her daughter's face with a worried look on her face and clasped her hands. She told Sumie that she had a miscarriage. Sumie was so filled with deep despair and sadness that she didn't respond. The mother thought that whatever she said would only sound futile, so she watched over Sumie quietly. She had imagined it would be like this, but it was really very painful.
Miscarriages often occur in the early stages of pregnancy. Sumie's blood pressure was high, and she was probably under a lot of pressure to go home alone. The doctor explained to the family that the miscarriage was definitely not her fault.
After being released from the hospital, Sumie shut herself in her room and spent her days in a daze. When her husband Marco heard the news of her miscarriage, he rushed over from Japan, but Sumie refused to take a single step out of her room. "I'm tired, so I just want to stay here," she said.
In the end, Sumie's parents and Marco discussed their future plans. They decided that Marco would take a month's special leave from work and come and pick up Sumie in March 2020, four months later. Marco was hopeful that by then, Sumie would be healthy and able to return to her beloved Japan.
However, as 2020 began, news about the new coronavirus began to spread, and Marco was unable to return to Brazil in March as originally planned.
In Brazil, anxiety and fear spread among everyone. To prevent infection with the coronavirus, Sumie stayed at her parents' house with her mother, her father rented a room at his workplace, and her sister stayed in an apartment with a university classmate. Each family member decided to stay apart until the pandemic subsided.
However, Sumie's grandfather, who lived in the next town, was infected with COVID-19 and died a few days after being hospitalized. Shortly after, her grandmother also became infected and was hospitalized, and the family fell into a panic. Her grandchildren began folding paper cranes. They were a thousand paper cranes in prayer for their grandmother's recovery.
Fortunately, the folded paper cranes had a double effect! Grandma was able to leave the hospital two weeks later, and Sumie, who had become obsessed with origami, regained her strength. Sumie made a video of folded paper cranes and posted it online. She donated the folded paper cranes that her family made with their help to the facility.
Meanwhile, in Japan amid the coronavirus pandemic, Marco visits local elderly people and creates "memorable portraits" for them while working at his factory.
Time passed, and at the end of November 2021, Sumie and her family were able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and Marco was finally able to return to Brazil from Japan. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the future is completely uncertain, so he decided to live with Sumie in Brazil for a while.
And so, on Christmas that year, the two celebrated with their families in a warm atmosphere. For Marco and Sumie, it was the first Christmas they spent alone with their families. In Japan, Christmas was always very lively and noisy, with Sumie's relatives, co-workers from the factory and the beauty salon, and acquaintances from the dekasegi business. The bond between the family had become stronger, and Sumie felt very comforted.
As the new year began, Marco and Sumie moved to a new home. Marco got a job at a life insurance company. Sumie considered opening a beauty salon at home, but decided to wait and see how it went. With the Omicron strain of influenza also occurring at the same time, she thought it would be dangerous to work in the customer service industry.
Although their life was going smoothly, the two of them had a strong desire to live in Japan again. While living in Japan, the two of them realized many things. They were able to obtain many things that money cannot buy, such as kindness, consideration, and hospitality. They were filled with the desire to give back to Japan someday.
And when he is able to return to Japan, he has a big dream of bringing his family here. Sumie's father just retired from the company he worked for 35 years, and says he still has plenty of time to work. Sumie's sister's fiance has finished studying abroad in Australia and is aiming to work in Japan. Marco's father wants to see Japan at least once, and is looking forward to that day.
May all your dreams come true!
© 2022 Laura Honda-Hasegawa
