Williams 2
This being said, every morning my grandmother and her younger brother and sister
ventured out into the shadows of day trying to find anything they could without being noticed.
During the nights they lay on the dirt floor trying to force themselves to sleep through the noise
of countless bombs being dropped nearby while they hold each other for comfort. One day my
grandmother‟s little brother felt sick to his stomach after eating the fruit that had been brought
back the previous day, so they were forced to venture out without him. The bombing attack of
the preceding night was apparent as they had to walk carefully so as to not step on any of the
deceased bodies. The day was spent scrounging around in the woods for nuts and such,
retrieving water from the lake, and looking for the U.S. troops who from time to time gave out
small amounts of rice to refugees they came across. The next day her brother‟s condition was
worse, his body looked as though it was rotting. There were no hopes of medical help though,
even before the war the only people who received such luxury were the very wealthy. It was
hopeless for my grandmother to go search for help, but she did anyway. By the time she had
arrived back at the hut, he had died.
They later found out portions of their fruit had been exposed to extreme amounts of
cyanide, a tactic the North Koreans used to reduce population. Her little brother had literally
been eaten from the inside out. Nevertheless, her dad still needed to take care of her mother. My
great-grandmother saw herself as a burden to her loved ones. So, often she tried to drag herself
out in the country with only one working arm and leg trying to be killed. Now that her son had
passed, it was even worse. Consequently, my grandmother was alone when it came to cleaning
her brother for burial. I remember while my grandmother was telling me this story she vividly
remembered, “How stiff and cold the body was. While looking at him through my now blurry
eyes and flashbacks of how alive he used to be, full of laughter, it was apparent we hadn‟t had