Returning Home
This Sunday, April 24, is the 21st anniversary of my father’s passing. He was diagnosed almost a year before with lung cancer. The doctors said he might not make it through the end of the year, but he lived through the year, through the winter until the cherry blossoms bloomed again in the spring. That year, cherry blossoms came early, and they were at full bloom by late March. When I went back to Japan to see him for the last time, the doctors allowed him to come home from the hospital for a few days so we can spend some time together. He was too weak to get up and walk, but I got to drive around the neighborhood so he got to see the streets lined with trees with those ever faintly pink blossoms. He really wanted to see them for the last time, and his wishes were granted.
Both of my parents donated their bodies to medical research. After they passed away, the research group (often a part of a medical schools) would take their corpses and return the ashes when they’re done. It was just about a year later that my father’s ashes came home again during the cherry blossom season. I happened to be in Japan for a production work, so I got to join a group of my father’s friends to go hiking into this mountain called, Tanzawa, where he used to love hiking to sprinkle some of his ashes. It is really not easy to nail the time those spring blossoms are decorating the hills. Yet, it was as if the mountain spirit was awaiting my father to come home and celebrating his return with shades of pink on the hillside.
It was that day I shot this image after the hike. He was home now just where and when he loved to be. I was so lucky that the confluence of events perfectly brought me there in the right moment. This image has become the most dear to my heart as I know he’s there. It was also my father who taught me how to use an all manual Nikon camera way back when I was a teenager, and it was also him (and my family) who instilled my love of nature, to appreciate the changing seasons, and to care for this Earth.
I’m sure I’ll be back there again during the cherry blossom season though everything is so uncertain these days and can’t take anything for granted. This is why I get to appreciate every moment that I can remember to soak in…