PEITA - A Mother's Sorrow

PIETA – A Mother’s Sorrow

September 17th Thursday, very early in the morning we received a call that one of our resident woman’s daughter died in a car accident in Chungli, a city in the north. Three of us staff sat down with her and gave the news. We witnessed a string of tragedy in one person’s life. Later that morning, I along with two Taichung county social welfare officials, accompanied her to the police station to know more of the details and file the police report. She was crying all the time. After police report was taken, we were asked to wait at the lobby. I witnessed how the Taiwanese people deal with tragedy.
A woman we saw coming in to the police station approached her this time, along with two teen aged girls. The woman is the Director of the children village where her daughter was temporarily living in custody after the two of them was found living in the streets for about a week. She was brought to Good Samaritan Women Center. The Director along with two girls and made a low bow saying sorry “tui bu chi” to her. She sobbed even more. Then there was quiet and calm for a long time.
We moved to another corner of the lobby to wait for the investigator. We sat there for quite a while she cried non-stop. All of a sudden, two men came up to us. It was the driver of the 16 wheeler-truck who killed the daughter. He was inside the interrogation room. He was allowed to come out to kneel in front of the mother. He was crying asking for forgiveness. She sobbed with so much grief when he saw him. We were all feeling the deep sadness. All I could do was held her hand and offered her water to drink. The driver and the mother exchanged some questions and answers. Later on, she asked him to stand up and uttered a forgiving word, “stand up, being mad at you will not help, my daughter is already dead.” I looked at her with admiration, she is a woman with a lot of inner strength.
The investigator was taking a long time to arrive, so we decided to go ahead and went to the morgue. We waited in a smaller investigation room next to the coroner’s room. She was to identify the daughter’s body in the presence of investigator. All but me, were telling her not to see the daughter’s body until she prepared and made up. The others doesn’t even realize what they are saying. All the talking and suggestions from others in the room made her confused. The point is we were there to identify the body, so she has no choice but to look at the mangled little body of her daughter, no matter how hard this will be. It was past 8 p.m. when the investigators came, she and I were the only ones allowed to get inside the morgue. When we all gathered, the police opened the body bag. I held the mother as she sobbed in muffled sounds. Everyone stood still, waiting for her to calm down. The police asked one question, “Is she your daughter?” and she responded positively. Then the investigation process began. It took about two hours questioning all the parties.
Since it was too late to go back to Taichung, we decided to stay with the children’s village. That night, all the children in the orphanage hugged her and told her how her daughter was before the accident. She was very calm during this time. I stayed overnight also to be with her. The next day, I went back to the women center, and she decided she liked to stay behind and rest. The director promised me that they will watch and support her. As of this writing, she was still at the children village, wants to stay near her daughter’s remains and arranged the funeral. She chose to have a Christian funeral for her daughter, even though she is a Buddhist. We await for her return at the women center.