May 2, 2026
by Dr. Plastic Picker
Sometimes when something big happens to one person in the family, it prompts the next person in the family to shift and make decisions and another big thing happens. After our youngest was admitted and decided to attend Harvard, it was like a puzzle piece was fitted in and the next puzzle piece needed to be fitted. My father-in-law decided with his children to finally sell the Yun family home to a non-Yun relative – and end the last financial and property ties to the country they voluntary emigrated more than 40 years ago.
He just left for the airport with Mr. Plastic Picker (his son), and he will fly to his home country and see siblings and friends and sign important paperwork transferring the last asset. His wife, my mother-in-law, is sad because her husband is gone for a week. It’s been complicated thinking of this last tie to South Korea, but it came to a good conclusion. The children and grandchildren were involved or at least considered in the decision. As the daughter-in-law, it was very interesting watching my Korean American inlaws decide and discuss. The property is not worth that much, but it stands on the ancestral home but it’s now a nondescript semi-modern four story building. I’ve only seen it once, when we visited after our wedding and I met my grandmother-in-law. It was a brief weekend stay, and she was very kind to me. I was the Harvard-trained almost doctor who married her beloved grandson, who was raised in the US and only saw her a handful of times after they emigrated. This grandmother prayed nightly to have a grandson for years. And that grandson was born, and emigrated and went to Harvard and became a doctor. I don’t know too much about this elder, but I do know that her love for this particular grandchild (my husband) was fierce and unconditional.
My husband feels great relief at this decision. The children feel it’s the right thing to do, as they don’t have any emotional ties to this home that they have never seen. I wish my father-in-law had his own blog and could write in a language I fully understood, and tell us about his adventures this week relinquishing his childhood home. Everyone is the main character is their own storyline, and his is one filled with hardship, trauma, perseverance and triumph. Of all the people on this earth, I admire and love my father-in-law so fundamentally. It’s been one of the bright spots in my life to have been lucky enough to be his daughter-in-law and be comfortable together, and living as a family unit with the same goals and values.
In his bag to South Korea, be brought a Harvard Family button. The one they gave us as Visitas. He deserves to take credit for all the hard-work that he has put into raising his grandchildren. He’s going on his victory lap back home. And that makes me so happy.
