Just eighteen and naive
To my best recollection, I had it through when I got my GED. They introduced me to where I could get into the job force and that was one of the jobs that they sent me to. That's how I got into that workforce. It was through a school that introduced me there.
(They told me) That it was a new beginning of the high Tech industry of scanning in the future. Everyday you go to the grocery store you hear that beep or if there’s scanning in the grocer in the store you would hear that. That I would be helping make that item for the future out here.
(So you were proud to be) Oh yes, but I was very naive, 18-year-old naive. But I was like ’Yes!’ to be an independent young woman out there. Yes I was very happy to get that job.
What kind of job I did was in this little small room, it was me and another gentleman in there. I would be in one corner, he was in another corner and I would make where the laser would go through the little tube. I would make the ending part of it. It's hard to describe. I would have to spray clean and so forth stuff like that to make the end of the laser come out and make it accurate so it would scan properly when the product was finished.
I remember to my recollection there were some smells that I would smell but basically that was my job and I did it. There were sometimes because there were two of us in there I did have to walk out quite a bit and go get fresh air. It did become, what I would say, it was stuffy. Now I know it wasn't stuffy. There was no ventilation for all the chemicals to go. I was smelling all that.
I started working I believe it was in 1975. I was eighteen and I stopped in 1979 when he was born. It is five to six days a week. It's eight to ten hours a day.
Mark has special needs
What caused it is basically from the chemicals I was smelling for nine months in the entire time I was pregnant there. I didn't know that until decades later at the time. When he was born the doctors just said he had to be in an incubator and there wasn't really much they could tell me about him at the time. But I noticed as he started going through his years he wasn't doing the steps.
Because he was my firstborn so I was a new mom. I didn't know. He wasn't lifting his head, he wasn't crawling. There were so many things he wasn't on the mark of being in developmental (milestones) through his years and I can't recall when they said he had to be in special (education) at school but I still can't to this day see anything like that. I know other people can but this is my baby boy, and I love my son very much.
I hate to use labels but it was one form of ‘mental retardation’. I don't like labels. Just say that's my son, (he has) special needs and that's it. Throughout the years, I've had severe and you know so forth. I just took it with a grain of salt and said “No that's my son. We're gonna go out there and he's gonna enjoy life too.” A lot of people out there are not nice. I've encountered so many people that didn't understand but still didn't stop us.
But I'm still kicking
Now I have a type of blood cancer. It's rare here in the United States. I have to take chemo pills every day, I have for the last twelve years now. I can't tell you the merry-go-round I have with that but I'm still kicking. So he's the one who keeps me going.
Yes I did (have a miscarriage) the previous to mark I did. I mean it's sort of hard sometimes to remember but I'll never forget having severe pain, then having to go to the restroom there at my workplace.
I remember there was a girl there that I was telling her I don't know what was going on and I don't know if she went and told the boss. I'm assuming she did because they sent me home right after that. “Oh well she is sick with the cold. Go home.“
“Did this ever happen to you?”
Decades later, I heard a radio announcement. I believe it was a radio announcement that they were saying “Did this ever happen to you? Did this happen to your son with this and that and this and that” and I'm sitting there going “Yeah yeah yeah” I was saying yes to everything and I ended up calling the firm that was announcing that. That's when they started talking a little bit and that's when I met Mandy and everything just boomed. So to speak, I just went “What?”
(During pretrial) I felt numb, I felt bewildered, I felt angry. I don't know if I can do this but inner strength and I kid you not it was because of mandy, her being there and supportive and telling me so much this is this. She was always in my life so much back then. If it wasn't for her I couldn't have done this.
I mean inner strength came out as she brought it out of me and that's how I kept going. And then just like I have to do this for my son. I need to do this for him.
You take care of me, I take care of you
The everyday frustration is to see him where he can't go out just like my other two children where they could just go out and do everyday living. I have to be basically twenty four seven with him.
I mean there's so much that goes into taking care of Mark every day. But then he takes care of mama, I tell “You take care of me, I take care of you.” He realizes small little things that I probably would have just passed up or he could sense when a person has a good heart. He teaches me a lot of things. He's taught me patience. I never had patience before.
I'm hoping that my story will help and they(people in Korea) could grasp whatever they need from my story and hopefully they don't give up. They persevered with lots of strength and a lot of calm and tried to see “What am I working with? Is this bad for me? How can I protect myself?”
Just one day at a time and don't give up. I mean look at us years later. It's been a long road and it's still gonna be more of a road. We love our adventures but not that kinds of adventures but just strength and a lot of inner peace for whatever you have to go through.
Interviewer Media Cuckoo
Writer Lim Dayun
Painter Park Jeongwon
Just eighteen and naive
To my best recollection, I had it through when I got my GED. They introduced me to where I could get into the job force and that was one of the jobs that they sent me to. That's how I got into that workforce. It was through a school that introduced me there.
(They told me) That it was a new beginning of the high Tech industry of scanning in the future. Everyday you go to the grocery store you hear that beep or if there’s scanning in the grocer in the store you would hear that. That I would be helping make that item for the future out here.
(So you were proud to be) Oh yes, but I was very naive, 18-year-old naive. But I was like ’Yes!’ to be an independent young woman out there. Yes I was very happy to get that job.
What kind of job I did was in this little small room, it was me and another gentleman in there. I would be in one corner, he was in another corner and I would make where the laser would go through the little tube. I would make the ending part of it. It's hard to describe. I would have to spray clean and so forth stuff like that to make the end of the laser come out and make it accurate so it would scan properly when the product was finished.
I remember to my recollection there were some smells that I would smell but basically that was my job and I did it. There were sometimes because there were two of us in there I did have to walk out quite a bit and go get fresh air. It did become, what I would say, it was stuffy. Now I know it wasn't stuffy. There was no ventilation for all the chemicals to go. I was smelling all that.
I started working I believe it was in 1975. I was eighteen and I stopped in 1979 when he was born. It is five to six days a week. It's eight to ten hours a day.
Mark has special needs
What caused it is basically from the chemicals I was smelling for nine months in the entire time I was pregnant there. I didn't know that until decades later at the time. When he was born the doctors just said he had to be in an incubator and there wasn't really much they could tell me about him at the time. But I noticed as he started going through his years he wasn't doing the steps.
Because he was my firstborn so I was a new mom. I didn't know. He wasn't lifting his head, he wasn't crawling. There were so many things he wasn't on the mark of being in developmental (milestones) through his years and I can't recall when they said he had to be in special (education) at school but I still can't to this day see anything like that. I know other people can but this is my baby boy, and I love my son very much.
I hate to use labels but it was one form of ‘mental retardation’. I don't like labels. Just say that's my son, (he has) special needs and that's it. Throughout the years, I've had severe and you know so forth. I just took it with a grain of salt and said “No that's my son. We're gonna go out there and he's gonna enjoy life too.” A lot of people out there are not nice. I've encountered so many people that didn't understand but still didn't stop us.
But I'm still kicking
Now I have a type of blood cancer. It's rare here in the United States. I have to take chemo pills every day, I have for the last twelve years now. I can't tell you the merry-go-round I have with that but I'm still kicking. So he's the one who keeps me going.
Yes I did (have a miscarriage) the previous to mark I did. I mean it's sort of hard sometimes to remember but I'll never forget having severe pain, then having to go to the restroom there at my workplace.
I remember there was a girl there that I was telling her I don't know what was going on and I don't know if she went and told the boss. I'm assuming she did because they sent me home right after that. “Oh well she is sick with the cold. Go home.“
“Did this ever happen to you?”
Decades later, I heard a radio announcement. I believe it was a radio announcement that they were saying “Did this ever happen to you? Did this happen to your son with this and that and this and that” and I'm sitting there going “Yeah yeah yeah” I was saying yes to everything and I ended up calling the firm that was announcing that. That's when they started talking a little bit and that's when I met Mandy and everything just boomed. So to speak, I just went “What?”
(During pretrial) I felt numb, I felt bewildered, I felt angry. I don't know if I can do this but inner strength and I kid you not it was because of mandy, her being there and supportive and telling me so much this is this. She was always in my life so much back then. If it wasn't for her I couldn't have done this.
I mean inner strength came out as she brought it out of me and that's how I kept going. And then just like I have to do this for my son. I need to do this for him.
You take care of me, I take care of you
The everyday frustration is to see him where he can't go out just like my other two children where they could just go out and do everyday living. I have to be basically twenty four seven with him.
I mean there's so much that goes into taking care of Mark every day. But then he takes care of mama, I tell “You take care of me, I take care of you.” He realizes small little things that I probably would have just passed up or he could sense when a person has a good heart. He teaches me a lot of things. He's taught me patience. I never had patience before.
I'm hoping that my story will help and they(people in Korea) could grasp whatever they need from my story and hopefully they don't give up. They persevered with lots of strength and a lot of calm and tried to see “What am I working with? Is this bad for me? How can I protect myself?”
Just one day at a time and don't give up. I mean look at us years later. It's been a long road and it's still gonna be more of a road. We love our adventures but not that kinds of adventures but just strength and a lot of inner peace for whatever you have to go through.
Interviewer Media Cuckoo
Writer Lim Dayun
Painter Park Jeongwon