Chef T and I were classmates at the
Gemological Institute of America in Santa Monica.
Chef T was just one of the classmates sitting
quietly behind me at that time.

When our class was studying about jade, 
chef T told an old story about the relationship
between chef T 's grandmother and a jade
during our lunch time.

It was a very memorable story, so
I would like to interview chef T and
introduce the story.  


At the time of World War II,  Chef T's grandmother was living with 
Chef T's grandfather who was a young police officer and three small children,
the oldest of which was Chef T's father, in a small residential police box located at
Shimogawara, Numazu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, where was
about 20 minutes on foot from the beach.  

One night near the end of the war, Numazu was hit by a large air raid.  
At the time of World War II , the human rights situation was not same as these days ,
a person's life is much lighter.
Every city in Japan was hit by air raids almost every night, killing hundreds, thousands, 
and tens of thousands of people. 

On the night of Numazu air raid, the police box  where the grandmother lived
 was in the blazing fire , as were the houses around. The family fled toward the coast 
with nothing but their wearing clothes .

When the family safely evacuated to the beach, the grandfather said that
he would return to work to save people, leaving his wife and three children behind 
and heading back alone to the burning city .
  

Even after dawn, Grandfather did not return to the beach, so, Grandmother thought that
Grandfather might have died in the line of duty.
 She waited with great pain. 

As the sun got higher, grandmother saw grandfather in a police uniform  walking toward her
beyond the crowd of refugees sitting in a daze.   
 It seemed like  a dream to her because it was so great relief.   

Since grandmother had been in the middle of the extreme tension for long hours ,
she even could not stand up as her strength was gone.
She was just crying in her husband's arm.   


After a while, Grandmother noticed that her jade ring was missing from her finger.  
When she evacuated, she might have been desperately pulling the child's hand 
and it might have come off.  

 The jade ring was bought by her husband for his new bride after they got married. 
 The grandmother's life was very humble ,so
the jade ring was the only jewelry that she always wore and cherished.

The grandmother told Chef T who is her grandson, that
" Though your grandpa was young and had no money , he bought me a jade ring."
She looked nostalgic for her youth.

During her lifetime, Grandmother told Chef T the above story several times. 
Every time after the story, she said that the jade ring sacrificed itself for her and her family
She thought the jade ring is a life saver.

Hundreds of people, including neighbors, lost their lives in that night in Numazu.

If my grandmother's family had died in the Numazu air raids, Chef T would not have existed.
 Also ,even in the middle of covit-19 lockdown, we could sell jade jewelry through 
Jupiter shop channel ,so we can keep doing this business.

That is why I feel like we have a mysterious and  strange connection with jade.

Well then!  









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New item added to Sheen.