“I was your pride,
You were my love.”

《The Age of Love》 is a record of love, loss, growth, and gratitude drawn from one person's ordinary family history.
My father was poor but honest, and my mother had to live with sadness.
The daughters of those two men, now at an age where they have lost their father, begin to revisit memories they had been unable to recall for a long time.
I calmly write down the regret and longing hidden in the past, and the remaining emotions in the name of love.

Tethered together in the name of family,
Traces of old and strong love.

Questions that everyone has thought about at least once.
This memoir, which begins with the questions, “Why is my dad like that?” and “I won’t live like my mom,” contains the process through which the author, who has become a parent as time goes by, looks back on the devotion and love of his parents that he was not aware of as a child.
My father lived each day with sincerity and humor, and my mother taught me self-reliance and gave me quiet love.
The author looks back on her days as a daughter of two people and carefully reveals the backs of her parents who pushed her through every twist and turn of life.
Moments that passed by in shame, and feelings that remained deep because they could not be expressed, are finally put into words.

Even if it wasn't perfect or abundant, that time was definitely 'love'.
Even if it wasn't perfect, even if it wasn't abundant, those times were definitely love.
《The Age of Love》 is also the story of everyone who lived through that era.

“Why on earth is my dad like that?”
“I won’t live like my mother.”

I was ashamed and resented my parents for not having anything to learn or have.
Then I gradually realized.
Memories of my father became a concentrated force that helped me overcome the sorrow of loss.
Daily life with my mom is a milestone in my life and gives me positive energy.

--- p.12

I lived hand to mouth.
Mr. Gapcheon collected banknotes from time to time.
Crumpled and soiled thousand, five thousand, and ten thousand won bills from other people's pockets piled up.
I even started to dream of living my whole life without any worries in my own car.

After going through several used trucks, Mr. Gapcheon bought a new blue 1-ton truck from Company K.
The four letters of 'Gapcheon Yongdal' were worn away, and I couldn't even stroke them properly with my hand.
We prepared a plate of boiled meat and makgeolli, bowed, and held a ritual.
The alcohol was sprayed on four wheels.
I put my hands together and prayed and prayed.
--- p.30

When I came to my senses, I was in the middle of a busy road.
Drivers of other cars were swearing at Mr. Gapcheon.
It was an unusual accident, not befitting a veteran driver with a long career.
After the accident was resolved, Mr. Gapcheon decided to rest at home.
Even before the accident, Mr. Gapcheon often complained of headaches.
--- p.58

Hyeok grabbed the woman's hair and swore.
Nurses came running at the screams of a woman whose hair was grabbed.
Several people rushed in and tore Hyeok and the woman apart.
The messed up woman screamed.
Hyeok continued to stare at the woman.
Not a single tear was shed.
--- p.69

"Mom, doesn't that person over there look similar to Dad's build? Judging by the hiking clothes they're wearing, they must have been hiking? They seem to be around seventy years old. If Dad were alive, how old would he be this year?"
“Yeah, he’s just like your dad.
“If your father were alive, he would have turned 70 last year.”

--- p.118