Lesson 3 For the Love of Our Country
The Secret of My Father
In 1946, a strange ____ visited me and asked, “Are you Mr. Kim Yonghwan’s daughter?”
For me, this was an odd question because I was more used to ____ called the daughter of a parakho.
“I’m your father’s friend. You may ____ if it is true, but your father... ,” the man said.
At that moment, I was expecting disappointing news since I did not have good memories of my ____.
____ in the 1920’s, whenever people saw me in the village, they would say, “There goes the parakho’s daughter.”
My ____ was a son from a very rich family. Instead of living the life of a seonbi, he was always at the gambling house.
That is why he was called a parakho, which means someone who ruins his ____ fortune.
“Your father has gambled away all of the money, and now ____ asking for more.
Go and tell him that we have no more money left,” my mother would tell me whenever she ____ me to the gambling house.
Then, my ____ would yell at me angrily, “Why did you come empty-handed? Bring me more money!”
When I was sixteen years old
When I was ____ years old, my family had already made an arrangement for me to marry Mr. Seo.
As part of the wedding tradition, Mr. Seo’s ____ sent my family some money to buy a new chest for clothes.
Right ____ the wedding day, my mother came into my room and said, “Your father has taken the money for the chest.”
I ____ angrily, “How could he do such a horrible thing? What should we do now?”
“We have no choice. You’ll have to take your aunt’s ____ chest,” my mother said.
“How embarrassing for the family,” people would ____ behind my back.
Since the first day of marriage, life at my husband’s house had been ____ for me.
“Your father, my dear friend...,” my father’s ____ continued his story.
“He was not a gambler. Your father sent the family money to the independence ____ in Manchuria.
He made himself look like a gambler to keep this a secret from the Japanese ____.”
At first, I was ____ sure if he was telling the truth.
But afterwards, I found out the truth ____ my father and I realized that I had been wrong about him.
Ever since that moment, I have ____ proud to be the daughter of a parakho who had devoted his life to the independence movement.