이 조
Jo Lee

Jo Lee is Heesoo’s paternal great-grandmother and they lived together until Lee passed away in 1996. Lee said that her nickname is 맹꽁이(maengkkong-i), a kind hearted person who trusts people for exactly what they say, often much too literally. Lee had dementia when Heesoo first met her. Lee was a small, sweet hearted, quiet, and religious person. Lee’s daily routine consisted of looking at the virgin Mary and Jesus statues and praying.

Heesoo’s parents have shared some interesting stories about Lee. 

When Lee was young, she fell in love at first sight, when she went to go buy tofu, with a young guy who worked at the store, without ever even speaking with him. She liked the way he looked and his “kind personality.” But she couldn’t find a chance to talk to him or meet him outside of the store.

When Lee would walk around the neighborhood, she would often see a huge mansion, and wonder to herself, what kind of person would live in such a house. Later, she had an arranged marriage with Heesoo’s paternal great-grandfather, but he is the complete opposite of her envisioned ideal type. He was a successful businessman, but just wasn’t her type. After they married, she found herself in that very mansion, married to that man. They had three kids and lived in this huge mansion with 99 rooms in North Korea (for real) but their relationship was not the happiest. He had a concubine in the next town. Later on, during the Korean War, because they were wealthy, they were able to buy a huge ship and escape to South Korea. Once they arrived in South Korea, they sold the ship and used the money to settle down in South Korea.

Before the Korean War, Lee had frequently had encounters with a 도깨비(dokkaebi) family when she was a kid. 도깨비(dokkaebi) is goblin indigenous to Korean mythology. They are very mischievous like children and love to play pranks on people. They speak their own language, which sounds strange to humans. The 도깨비(dokkaebi) mom, dad, and a baby visited Lee’s house and were talking loudly in the yard and did some crazy pranks while Lee’s family was sleeping. They hung the noodles from kitchen in the yard on the tall tree’s branches, spread sand all over the floor, and put a huge earthen pot (가마솥) in the firepit that had a very narrow opening and brought the pot back to its original spot, exactly one the day after.

Lee was 맹꽁이(maengkkong-i). She was often naive and took things literally. During the Japanese colonial period, the Japanese patrolman plundered houses looking for iron for the war, and when they showed up at her doorstep, she gave them all the iron objects she had, hiding nothing, including the spoon and chopsticks, obediently. When her husband asked why she gave all to the Japanese patrolman, she said “because they asked me to give them all.” Lee was a very sincere Catholic believer. Because she was a devout Catholic, she abided by the practice of always helping those in need. She walked to the church every morning from 5am with her kids to attend the morning mass. Heesoo’s dad thinks that it was truly fortunate that his grandmother, Lee, was a Catholic, because if she happened to be in a cult, she would have lost everything.