 Image: Daily NK |
Yoon Kyeong Hui [pictured left], who escaped from North
Korea and has come to the South, works as a visiting caretaker for a retirement
home and devotes her free time–along with other defectors–to volunteering
with a group called “Happy Volunteers,” where she prioritizes scrupulous care for the elderly.
Yoon invests much of her care in a woman,
who like herself, is originally from North Korea. Despite not having any family
in the South, her client escaped the North and started a new life a few years
ago. She worked briefly after settling down in the South but was confined to her home without any way to make a living after falling victim to a stroke. When Yoon first met this woman, she found her to be
difficult and seething with anger and frustration about society, which she often
coped with by excessive smoking and drinking.
“All the nurses who had taken care of her
would shake their heads and give up,” Yoon recalls. But Yoon could not find it
in herself to do the same. Reminding herself that they shared a harrowed
history, risking everything to come to the South, Yoon continued to care
of her. “I told her that we have to be grateful for the small things in life,
and treasure the little moments of happiness,” Yoon says.
Yoon resides in the same apartment complex
as the elderly woman, so she frequently dropped in on her outside of work
hours, carting home-cooked meals and checking on her several times a day to
ensure she had not fallen ill. After two years of unwavering love and
dedication, the elderly woman abruptly declared, “I’m so sorry for everything I
put you through. This drink in my hand will be my last–I’m giving up
drinking!”
Yoon considers this moment one of her
happiest work-related memories to date. Her client, after drinking daily
for almost half a century, changed her entire way of life and suddenly the world
around her was cast in a new light; in the same process, Yoon proved to herself
that sincere actions can truly change people.
Longing to give back
However, her work as a caretaker has not
always been so bright. In the beginning, she lacked the experience and skills
for the job, exacerbated by stress she felt after constant criticism from
clients about her North Korean accent. This led to many days and nights crying
and thinking of her son who entered the North Korean military a decade ago after
Yoon’s husband–his father–passed away.
After years living alone in North Korea,
Yoon made the perilous journey to the South thanks to her father
and brother, who had already resettled there years prior. Almost eight years
had passed since seeing her son, until she received notice that he had
arrived at Hanawon, the government resettlement center for North Korean
defectors. But after entering the building, she couldn’t identify her son because so much time time had passed since she last saw him.
Her concerns were assuaged when a young man tore across the room and fell into her arms yelling, “Mother!” and causing both of them to burst into tears.
“When he left for the military, he was
taller than average, but life was incredibly difficult there so his appearance
changed a lot. I couldn’t stop crying knowing what he’d been through,” Yoon
says. Now her son works at a automobile component- manufacturing company and
dreams of saving up to buy a house of his own.
Yoon attributes the success of her current life to all those who helped her along the way. Her
family in the South, welfare center staff, and police officers who
oversaw changed the course of her life entirely. “In 2009, I met my current
husband. Because we were both struggling, we couldn’t even dream of having a
wedding. That’s when a counselor from the Seosan Hana Center told me about a
free joint wedding service hosted by a broadcast station,” Yoon says.
These occurrences instilled Yoon with the desire to give something back, so she signed up as a volunteer with other defectors for the
welfare center in Seosan. She is now the vice-president of the group and
actively visits facilities for the elderly and disabled. “I even learned how to play the accordion at a private academy, and put on
performances with other defectors during our volunteer work. Since last year,
I’ve also been participating in a program to help other defectors settle in the
South,” she explains.
Yoon helps clean homes for defectors before
they are scheduled to move in, meticulously arranging everything just right, doing everything she can to make their transition to an overwhelmingly new life as smooth as possible. It’s easy to see
why Yoon is so popular among the defector community, who, among others, she will
continue to support with her happiness, time, and love for the remainder of her
days.
*This article was made possible by support
from the Korea Hana Foundation [the North Korean Refugees Foundation].
