[The Editors' Verdict] The 'Warmth of Life' Awakened by the Gimbap Grandmother

Grandmother Park Chun-ja began selling gimbap around the age of ten. Born in 1929, she started her business during the Japanese colonial period. Living with her widowed father without her mother, she had to earn money at an early age.

She started as a street vendor in front of Gyeongseong Station (Seoul Station), evading the eyes of Japanese police officers. It was too early an age to endure the hardships of the world. The life of struggling to save even a single penny through selling is hard to express in words. This is why even a 10-won coin was special to her.

Even after becoming an adult, life was not smooth. She started a family during the Korean War, but a stable life did not last. She had to end her marriage because she could not have children. The violence of a distorted social culture pushed her life to the edge of a cliff. Even if she lived her whole life resenting the world, it would be hard to blame her. Grandmother Park chose a different path to carve out her own life.

"I suffered because I had no money, so I must give to those who are less fortunate." A life philosophy that everyone knows but few can practice. The Gimbap Grandmother was a person who practiced the happiness of sharing.

The gimbap business she started at ten continued for 50 years until she reached sixty. She sold gimbap almost daily to hikers at Namhansanseong. The 630 million won she earned through such work is not why the world remembers her as the protagonist of a success story. The fortune she amassed is not even enough to buy a decent apartment in Seoul. However, Grandmother Park used the fruits of her labor more valuably than anyone else in the world.

Grandmother Park Chun-ja, who donated all her savings earned from selling gimbap and volunteered for people with disabilities for 40 years, donated her last monthly rent deposit before passing away.
The Green Umbrella Children's Foundation announced on the 13th that Grandmother Park donated 50 million won, the deposit of the house she lived in, according to her wishes expressed before her death on the 11th. The photo is of the late Grandmother Park Chun-ja. [Image source=Yonhap News]

There are eleven people who call Grandmother Park "mom." Although she had no biological children, there is a story behind how she came to have so many children. She cared for eleven intellectually disabled people with nowhere else to go in her home. It was not because she was wealthy that she could do this. She simply acted according to what her heart guided her to do.

For the construction of ‘Seongnam Little Jesus House,’ a residential facility for the disabled, she donated 300 million won to a convent. In addition, she donated 330 million won to the Green Umbrella Children’s Foundation to help students who had to give up their studies due to difficult circumstances. The 630 million won she had saved throughout her life was used so preciouslly.

When Grandmother Park’s good deeds became known, society took notice of her. In September 2021, the LG Welfare Foundation selected her as the recipient of the ‘LG Hero Award.’ Although the prize money amounted to 50 million won, she donated even that money. Her story at the time moved many people deeply and made them feel ashamed.

Grandmother Park passed away on the 11th at the age of 95, ending a hard life. At the moment of her departure, what she left behind was a will asking for the donation of her last asset, a 50 million won monthly rent deposit. "We will remember the footsteps of the deceased who shared warmth with the people for a long time."

The message delivered by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo mourning Grandmother Park’s passing resonates deeply. Grandmother Park awakened the ‘warmth of life’ that many had forgotten. In a society where words like righteousness and sharing have become unfamiliar, we who just keep running forward have even forgotten the seriousness of the situation.

The way to quench the thirst of life that material abundance cannot fill?perhaps the answer lies in the life of the Gimbap Grandmother.