From immigrating to the United States to the death of her son, a life full of twists and turns unfolds.
On the 15th, KBS1's Theater of Life will depict the daily life of Teresa Jeong.
▲ Teresa is back
Teresa Jeong, 63, has a hectic morning. Not only her two cats but also chickens, a dog, goats and even a donkey—just preparing breakfast for all the animal family takes ages. Before returning to Korea she had realized the romantic dream she once had, and living in a mountain village in Yeongcheon, Gyeongbuk, with her mother Kim Jeong‑sun, 86, Teresa had lived in California, U.S., until five years ago. When her second child was about to turn one, Teresa left a short marriage behind and emigrated with her two sons born in consecutive years. The immigrant life she embarked on in search of a new breakthrough was harsh.
She had to do any work that would earn money to raise her two sons while supporting the household alone. After raising her children through many hardships and seeing them become independent, Teresa began to ponder how to live the second half of her life meaningfully. Naturally, she thought of her mother who lived alone in Korea and chose to reverse‑immigrate with the idea of returning to care for her. Her mother had also separated from her husband at a young age and had lived alone her whole life after sending her only daughter Teresa to her father when she was young. Having left her mother's care early, Teresa returned to her mother at an age when her hair had gone white.
▲ The son buried in her heart
At first Teresa settled in WEGWAN with her mother. They built a pretty country house and opened a small café, but things did not go as planned. While she was struggling and adjusting to life in Korea, a bolt from the blue came from the United States: her eldest son, at the young age of 26, died suddenly in an accident. It happened two years after Teresa returned to Korea. She endlessly blamed herself for leaving her children behind, and days like hell began as the meaning of life disappeared.
With her child gone, she felt guilty even eating and laughing and wanted to hide from people. She decided to move deeper into the mountains, closed the café and home, and about a year ago moved to Yeongcheon. Though she had never farmed in her life, she built a small greenhouse and began flower farming. As she busily worked growing flowers and raising animals, her despair gradually eased and she regained the strength to live little by little. Her heart still hurts, but she is now learning to live with her son buried in her heart.
▲ Diary of a late‑blooming flower farmer and an octogenarian mother in the mountain
After returning to Korea, Teresa and her mother began living in the same house again. After crossing a long river of time, daily life together with her mother was not easy. Because they had been apart for so long, they clashed over every little thing. So when they moved to Yeongcheon they chose a life of "separate, yet together." They built two small houses within one fence to live in their own spaces. They don't force themselves to always eat together and each eats according to their own circumstances. Living separately but next to each other made life much more fun and the relationship more comfortable.
Now the flower farming of just over a year is entirely Teresa's responsibility. Though there are still many trial‑and‑error moments, she steadily ships to the Seoul flower market twice a week. She has grown close with neighbors, gathering to drink makgeolli when they have time and receiving help when they face difficulties, experiencing warm Korean hospitality as she lives.
At the end of summer as the heat wanes, we enter Teresa's flower fields where beautiful flowers bloom even in barren soil.
[OSEN]