11月7日 (日) The 13th Anniversary of Our Mother 母の13回忌
I attended a Buddhist service for the 13th anniversary of my mother in my father's/brother's home in Ishikawa prefecture. I'm amazed so many years have passed so quickly. I often think how it would be like with my mother still alive. I wish she were still here with us on every occasion. She was such an amazing mother. She was a loving mother, devoting herself to us children, working so hard to expand a small family business together into the present big one with my father. Thirteen years after her death, the family and relatives got together and we thank her for this opportunity. The priest who did the Buddhist service yesterday told us that people might think this was the service for the dead but the truth is that the deceased give a chance for the bereaved to meet and deepen their bond. After the service, we moved to a hot-spring hotel near our house. We had a good time, talking nostalgically of bygone days over a wonderful dinner served there. Since my sister and I came from far, we stayed there over night together with a few people from different parts of Japan, including our husband and our dear father. These pictures were taken in the nice Japanese hotel "Tsujinoya".
