I need to tell the story of a baby who desperately waits for his mother, just like Leigh Botts from “Dear Mr. Henshaw” always missed his father and waited for his call. I vividly remember wiping away my endless tears after closing the book in the library.
A baby, who appears to be about four years old, stares blankly at me from the cover. It seems like he has something to say… When I turn the cover, I see a winding alleyway where the baby has toddled down. On the next page, he looks at me again as if asking me to follow him, then toddles away busily. The baby waits endlessly for his mother at the tram stop.
He asks the conductor, “Isn’t my mom coming?” but only receives a cold response. The baby imagines where the tram his mother is riding might be. Even though it’s a freezing winter that turns the tip of his nose red, in the baby’s heart, his mother’s tram is flying over a colorful field of flowers, the sea, and the sky.
Several trams pass by and the kind conductor calls this nameless baby ‘the baby waiting for his mom’. And he gets off the tram and advises the child not to go anywhere and to wait for his mom right there.. The baby holds onto that advice tightly.
Even when the wind blows, the baby doesn’t budge,
Even when the tram comes, he doesn’t ask again,
With his nose turning bright red, he stands still.
From “Waiting for Mom”
As this single sentence strikes my heart, the camera seems to zoom in on the ‘baby waiting for his mom’, and the snot hanging from his frozen, bright red nose stings my own. The book ends with the baby looking up at the sky as the snow pours down.
What kind of ending is this… What an unfriendly author! When I first read it, I was so choked up that tears flowed endlessly. So what happened to the baby? Given the time when this was written, the author probably wanted to talk about the sorrow and despair of losing a country. But I don’t like this… I turn one more page and see the alleyway where the baby toddled down at the beginning. This time, snow is pouring down heavily. As I wipe away my tears with a tissue and try to close the book, I see a red dot. Huh? Upon closer inspection, it’s a candy in ‘the baby waiting for his mom’s’ hand. Isn’t his other hand holding his mom’s hand! Now I’m crying again with laughter. Thank goodness… He met his mom… I’m talking to myself… It’s ridiculous… But it can’t be helped. I’m so grateful to illustrator Kim Dong-sung for creating a warm ending that wasn’t in the original work. I think teacher Lee Tae-jun, the original author would also praise Kim Dong-sung’s version as much better.
Unlike the baby who waits for his mother in the bitter cold, I’ve never had to wait for my mother, but what touched my heart? It’s because I was led to meditate on ‘salvation’ from the sight of the baby waiting for his mother without ever leaving his spot after hearing the conductor’s advice. To the baby, his mother is salvation. Salvation from the cold, from hunger, from fear. The baby’s name became ‘the baby waiting for his mom’, and after receiving that name, he stares intently at the place where the tram comes, silently waiting for ‘salvation’. Standing in the biting cold wind waiting for his mother, I felt like I was looking at myself. That’s why I cried when I saw the baby left under a sky without a mother, and why my eyes turned red again at the sight of a mother and child walking hand in hand.
The illustrator has made the ending he created visible only to those who have eyes to see it. If you pass by carelessly, you won’t see it. He probably wanted to keep the original work intact, while also hoping to soothe the readers’ heartache. I was fully comforted by his consideration. That’s why I call this book Kim Dong-sung’s “Waiting for Mom”.
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