[One Sip of a Book] The Taste of Grandfather's Candy, 'Okchundang'

Some sentences encapsulate the entire content of the book itself, while others instantly reach the reader's heart, creating a connection with the book. We introduce such meaningful sentences excerpted from the book. - Editor's note

In the young granddaughter's memory, grandfather Go Jadong and grandmother Kim Sunim lived in a small town with a train station. To the shy grandmother, the warm and affectionate grandfather was her only friend. But one day, suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer, the grandfather leaves the grandmother's side. Left alone, the grandmother gradually loses her speech and memory, drawing only circles as she becomes trapped in time...

The candy that Kim Sunim slowly dissolved in her mouth.

The candy that was the prettiest on the ancestral ritual table.

The candy whose fragrance spread throughout the mouth.

Okchundang.

One day,

the grandfather who got up from his seat

quietly cleaned his body alone.

It was a sunny early summer day,

six months after the lung cancer diagnosis.

The day I left grandmother at the nursing home,

I tried not to think of grandfather.

Dad kept stammering,

and Mom said nothing.

Perhaps because of the short haircut to avoid troubling the caregivers,

grandmother looked cold.