(Introductory remarks) A person who listens generously
(Prologue) Mom's Room

Make up your mind
A person looking at the back
Until we become colleagues
A person who has to do it
When you get older
Pregnant women with qigong
Mom's Trip
Mom's social life
Kimchi Class in Vietnam
The beginning of Corona
People I miss
Holidays spent in Vietnam
A returning heart
Vietnam with my mom
your life

(Epilogue) The Faces of My Mother I Never Knew
(Author's Note) Each of them has bright eyes in their respective positions.
Conversation with Readers

After traveling as far as the distance from Seoul, South Korea to a small city in Vietnam
I started reading about the new person who arrived in front of me, 'Mom'.

Four years ago in the fall, my mother, who was over 50, went to Vietnam alone to work.
For the first time, my mother, who had never had a room of her own, not only when she was young but also after she got married, had her own room.
When a middle-aged woman with a family said she was going abroad for work, people around her were more worried about the family she would leave behind than about the person leaving.
That worry wasn't Mom's fault.
My mother, who was born the fifth daughter among eight children, started earning money from a young age to make a living.
And he started a family at an early age and lived a fierce and diligent life all his life.
I had always lived my life leaving myself behind, and from now on, I wanted to live a life where I only worry about my mother.
Working alone overseas was a huge challenge for my mother, but I sincerely hoped she would be able to enjoy some time alone, free from the burden of being someone's mother, wife, daughter, and daughter-in-law.
And as five years passed, my mother's life changed little by little.
I was able to break free from the roles I had been forced to carry all my life and find my own identity.
My mother was a much stronger and braver person than I thought.

“They say life is something you don’t know how it will flow,
I don't think I'll be able to easily fall into sadness anymore.
Even if I slipped again, I felt like I could just shake my knees and get up.
It was his life that stood firm against the twists and turns of life and the courage he taught through his own life.”

My mother, who went abroad for work for the first time, had a brief period of friction with the tacky local staff and gradually adapted to the new environment.
The daughter, looking at him like that, feels a new feeling.

“Was my mom like this too?
It is the act of silently watching someone thrown into an unfamiliar environment while holding a yearning heart in one's hand.
The person who looked at my back with concern and support in their eyes.
Now the roles have changed and I look at my mom.
“With a lot of concern and support hanging from my shoulders.” (From “The Person Looking Back”)

Spending time apart from your mother for the first time in your life becomes an opportunity to discover a side of her that you never knew existed.
The fact that my mother, who was always the type to get things done, was actually good at procrastinating, just like me.
Looking back, I feel a little sad when I think, “I wonder if his life, where he always had a well-organized house and worked without a single absence, was not simply because he was good at it, but because he was someone who had to get it done.”
Also, the word 'travel', which is often associated with 'mom', has always required someone's will to make it possible. I am once again impressed by my mom's courage as she talks about her trip to Vietnam, where she booked and traveled alone from start to finish.
Now, instead of saying "someday," my mother's travels are marked with the word "anytime," and I watch her expand her own world.


After going to Vietnam and traveling together, Kim Geu-rae witnesses that his mother is a person who knows everything and can go anywhere. He realizes that the mother he sees is not everything, and feels his mother's unique world in three dimensions.
Only then does the 'sadness' disappear from the gaze that had been looking at the sadness in the shadow of the mother.
Because I have a mother right in front of me who lives as herself and enjoys the happiness of being completely alone.


While drawing this work, Kim Geu-rae confesses that he discovered another feeling hidden in his heart, a feeling of regret.
I just wanted to support my mom, but I finally realized that I wasn't completely independent from her.
Realizing that loving him and identifying with him are two different things, she decides to keep some distance.
Looking at my mother who is living her own life well, I promise to myself that I will also live this life well with bright eyes.


Perhaps the relationship that allows us to discover such multifaceted aspects of each other throughout our lives is bound together by the name of 'family'.
Because they're always by our side, we often mistakenly think we know them well, but nothing is fixed, so family suddenly becomes the most unfamiliar thing in the world.
So, if you discover a side of yourself that you didn't know existed, just accept it as it is and start getting to know it from now on.
Like Kim Geu-rae, who stood by his side as his mother's daughter, as a woman living in the same era, and as his friend.

From the reader reviews of "To Be Continued"

My mother quit her job after getting married and lived as a housewife for 30 years.
Living as a mother, daughter-in-law, and wife, she couldn't even dream of traveling abroad, and she rarely went on domestic trips. Now, she's so sick that she can't go...
I am so touched by the way you portrayed the story of your mother.
thank you
- minty

It was the first time I realized that the phrase "room of one's own" could be so sad.
ㅠㅠ But I like it because it's hopeful - Metizen

Cute drawings and thought-provoking content.
Now that I think about it, I think my mother probably didn't have time to exist solely as herself.
- minor

'Let's just endure it' I feel a bit sad as I recall the feeling of helplessness I had the first time I went abroad.
Thank you so much for sharing your story with us - sculder

I happened to read it on my way home from work and it brought tears to my eyes.
I thought of my mother, who was depressed about not knowing what her purpose was after raising her two daughters and sons, and is now studying something new. I hope all women have their own rooms, new experiences, and courage! -antares6190

It's so touching to feel like my mom and I have changed time ㅠㅠ -kokoekwjd1

A mother's life that must be lived.
Because I'm living the life of a mother that I have to endure right now...
It's sad, but I can relate to it a million times over -sunhye77

This is how I get to see mothers in a new light! Thanks to the author! The author who makes me feel sad but ends up being funny -81231004

I think it's more realistic to say you just have to adapt than to say you have to overcome it -doit31

As I get older, I find myself empathizing more and more with what my mother used to say.
It's different now, and it will be different in ten years, right? -librairie

Why do I feel so proud and touched when I hear the story of my mom successfully traveling alone?
I guess it's because she looks like my mom - veronica0611