Documentary Empathy 'Hometown House with a Stove' The Lunar New Year holiday, when we miss our warm homes and mothers' warmth even more~ There are still mothers who live by lighting a fire in the stove. Why can't these mothers leave the stove? ▶ 'I'll give it to my children, so I have to do it while I'm moving' Grandmother Baek Gye-sun (84)'s stove for her children. In a rural village in Geochang-gun, Gyeongnam, deep in the mountains, the stove in Grandmother Baek Gye-sun's house is burning hot. When she opens the pot, she finds soybeans inside. How can a couple in their 80s make so much soybeans? 'I'll give it to you, so I have to do it while my body is moving' She got married to a man she'd never met, but he went into the military. She lived six years as a married woman without a husband when she was seventeen. She 'cried and ran away because she was hurt', but she came back to this place because of her children. Grandmother Baek Gye-soon, who used to light fires until she felt goosebumps, still lights fires, saying she is sick of it, sick of it. Even though she has been married for a long time, her children still come before herself. Knowing that her children living in the city will enjoy the food she makes with all her heart, Grandmother Baek Gye-soon still lights the fire in the stove that has been burning for over 60 years. ▶ “I can’t go out because I feel bad about how much my husband has burned it.” The stove of Grandmother Son Mal-soon (78), where the love of a couple boils for 60 years. In Grandmother Son Mal-soon’s house, a cast-iron pot lid with holes shows the passage of time. “They say pots get holes, but I’m broken like a pot.” At the age of nineteen, the grandmother got married to a man from Gyeongsang Province who only needed to say three words a day. She has lived for 60 years, waiting for her husband who is busy with work outside and not even knowing how to say a single warm word. He is still 'a bakery to me, the best in the neighborhood', but I now know that the affection we shared while raising our children together was love. When I came back from the dentist on a cold day, my husband lit a fire in the stove so that the floor was burning. 'I can't say it in words, I just have to feel it' Even though all of her three sons and two daughters have left for the city, Grandma Son Mal-soon's house is not lonely because her husband is in the house. Thanks to her husband who has been by her side for 60 years, Grandma Son Mal-soon's floor is warm even today. ▶ 'Just come back, I'll light a fire for you' Grandma Im Soon-jo (79) waiting for her husband to come home. In the large house that used to be bustling with family members in the upper and lower houses, only Grandma Im Soon-jo and her dog Kkabi are left. She turns on and locks the boilers in the other rooms and lights a fire in the stove in the lower room. Now, Grandma lives alone in the room where she used to sleep with her husband. My husband, who suffered a stroke two years ago, is still lying in a nursing home and has not yet returned home. 'When we lived together, he didn't have that kind of feeling, but now he feels empty, as if he had something in his hand and then let it go.' Fifty-nine years of time can't be lost in an instant, right? My husband used to fill the barn with firewood whenever he had time. The barn is more than half empty, but there is still no road. Will he be able to return before all the firewood is burned? 'Please come back, I'll light a lot of fire.' Every time Grandmother Im Soon-jo lights a fire in the stove, she prays that her husband will return, that she can lie down in the lower part of the house for just a few days and then leave. When she wakes up, her mother always lights a fire in the stove first. The lower part of the house, which had been cooling down overnight, became warm again, and a bucket full of hot water was placed next to the frozen washbasin. Thanks to this, the family was able to go out the cold front door with warmth in their hearts. Her parents are still waiting there. #Hometown #Stove #Mother