Newhaven: Week Seven - The Chang Family
Jin Chang knew that due to his advancing age he was unlikely to see his unborn child grow up. What he didn’t realise was that he wouldn’t even get the chance to see them born.
Loosing Jin was devastating for his young wife Chris, but she didn’t have any time to mourn him, going into labour in the early hours that following morning.
Soon Chris was a mother to not one, but two, raven haired brown eyed babies. She named her son Jin after his father, whose name meant gold and her daughter Yin, meaning silver.
The following time was a blur of feedings and changings and first smiles. Chris’ life completely and utterly revolved around her babies.
By the time they celebrated their first birthday, raising her two children seemed a little easier for Chris. That being said it didn’t take much for the best planned routine to fall apart.
Her children were her world, and for all the struggles and sleepless nights, she couldn’t imagine her life without them.
She couldn’t help but think that it would have been nice to receive some help from her children’s family though. Although she received the occasional phone call from her old colleague Lin, who was both her late husband’s daughter and her children’s half-sister, her promises of coming to visit never seemed to eventuate. And her late husband’s sister-in-law’s unexplained hatred of her meant she never even heard from the rest of her in-laws.
The truth was, although she was too proud to ask her friend for a loan, she wasn’t sure how she was going to continue financially. Jin had taken out a loan to pay for their house which of course she now couldn’t pay, and the little bit of money he had put aside was running out fast. Even being able to ask her husband’s family to babysit would have at least allowed her to work.
Somehow though, although it seemed a constant uphill battle, she kept the family fed and clothed until the twins celebrated their next birthday. She hoped, now they were in school, that she would be able to find a position that would allow her to work while they were in class.
She was also pleased that Lin’s daughter Lillian, who conveniently lived next door, was of a similar age and now came over to play with, well, her aunt and uncle.
It also meant Yin got a taste of her own medicine as she was always cheating when she played her brother in chess. The twins were similar in some ways, both being neat and moderately playful and outgoing. But Yin (7/5/9/5/1) was certainly more active and grouchier than her twin Jin (7/5/4/5/4) though, who seemed to constantly fall for his sister’s tricks.