Well, well, well. Here we are in the 10th episode of my podcast. I started the podcast in the pandemic as a supporting project to the this whole website with the goal of uplifting women’s voices and their stories to empower other women.
In this special episode to celebrate hitting two digits, I interview my very own, one and only, loud, highly energetic, generous, compassionate, charming and smart…Ibu Lily Efferin. AKA my mother.
Here we go. We don’t always have the smoothest relationship, but I think I can proudly say we’re both committed to supporting each other. We’re both trying to find the amorphous “healthy” balance between two women who are “mother and daughter”.
I asked her to share a window of her life which was perhaps one of the hardest for her as a young mother, even younger than me at this time. It was a period of time when our family lived in Taiwan (1989-1991). I was 2, she was 28. She didn’t speak Chinese at all, but she had to take care of my baby brother and myself, along with taking care of herself and my father who was completing his master’s degree.
In addition to everything, she shares about the miscarriage that happened in the last couple of months of our life in Taiwan. I can’t help to think how different our family dynamics would have been had this little one survived. Please consider this a trigger warning.
At the end of the day, this episode is a very personal episode – a time capsule to celebrate our Taiwan years.
Oh my! Here we go again!
One of my most–if not THE most–formative period in my life was being in Taiwan in the early 60’s.
I graduated highschool from Taipei American School (Go Tigers!!). I fell in love for the first time. I studied Chinese…then went along in univ in San Francisco to continue studying it.
My husband always believed my settling down in Bandung, being so immediately comfortable here, was the direct result of my earlier adventures in Taiwan.
One of my jobs at TAS was Page 4 Editor for the Tiger Tales. It was a page devoted to exploring sites in mostly Taipei…but also a little farther afield occasionally. Lung Shan Temple, the Lee Family Gardens in the suburbs, Sun Moon Lake. Taroko Gorge.
I wont bore readers more…but i need coffee with your mom
beware what you ask for!! I have been thinking we should take a family trip to taiwan, we haven’t ever visited since those decades ago.