方齋夜話--殘夢軒

我的母親黃許金鑾女士於2002年12月12日仙逝於林口長庚醫院，享年八十歲。二哥黃惠澤博士(Whittak Huang)在母親過世後，以英文扼要地講述母親的一生，讓我們五個兄弟姊妹以及親友們分享。中文部份是我的翻譯。雖然母親已經過世兩年餘，對母親的懷念仍絲毫未曾稍減。把這篇記要放在網誌上，除了想念老母親之外，也是對母親永遠的紀念和歌頌。

l    

l          Married: 1941-4-1

l          Children: 4 Boys and 1 Girl

我們的母親在一九二二年十月三十日出生於彰化縣鹿港鎮，她在一九四一年四月一日和我們的先父黃金麗結為夫妻，在他們辛苦但是精彩的一生中，養育了我們四個兒子和一個女兒。

1.      Early years, she was ahead of most of her peers. She worked, most of the young ladies stayed home. She worked as a bus conductor. She was kind to the passengers, particularly to the elderly (that impressed our father).

媽媽年輕的時候，在她的同輩當中是個開風氣之先的女孩子，在那個年代，大部份的女孩子都在家裡做家事，可是媽媽已經踏出家門，出外工作，擔任公路局巴士的車掌。媽媽當車掌時，對乘客非常親切，尤其對年長的乘客更是體貼，我們的先父當時就是因為看到媽媽這麼善良的本性才被她深深吸引。

2.      She was ahead of her time. She married our father by falling in love, not through match making, she won the heart of our father, even though that was not the wish of our grand parents.

我們的媽媽確實是開風氣之先的奇女子，她和我們的父親是自由戀愛而結婚的，在那個年代，不經由媒妁而自己找到結婚對象的並不多見。雖然不見得如我們的阿公阿媽之所願，但她征服了我們爸爸的心。

3.      She is a beautiful lady, even in the hospital bed, the nursing assistant said even at this age and having lost so much weight.

媽媽是一位漂亮的女人，即使因為生病住院，照顧她的醫院特別看護都說，雖然她的年歲已高而且病魔已經使她體重大減，她的容顏還是透露出她的美麗優雅。

4.      She was a brave lady. She left Taiwan for Shanghai by herself after she was married to our father when father had to go to Shanghai ahead of her.

媽媽是個勇敢的女性。她和爸爸結婚之後，因為爸爸必須先行前往上海任職，媽媽則隻身搭船前往與爸爸會合。

5.      She was a good match for father, she complement with soft approach and persuasion. She is all considerate of others.

她是爸爸的好搭檔，因為她的柔性訴求和信念與爸爸形成互補。媽媽是一位非常體貼別人的女性。

6.      She managed a large family with 5 children and an aging father. She cooked, washed, bought groceries, put us to bed and get us to school in the morning.

她一生為這個大家庭︰她的先生、五個小孩以及年邁的父親而操勞。她忙於烹煮、洗刷、張羅茶米油鹽醬醋茶，起早趕晚準備我們清晨上學以及晚上安頓就寢。

7.      She was a disciplinary who guided us during our years of growing up. She taught us to be humble, to work hard, be down to earth and no boasting. She taught us not to forget the steps behind, so that when we were successful, we would not put down people when they are down.

她是我們兄弟姊妹成長過程中的導師。她教導我們為人要憨厚、勤奮、謙虛不自大。她教導我們要飲水思源，所以當我有所成就時，我們還要提攜那些仍在辛苦奮鬥的人。

8.      She was the manager of the Huang family. She budgeted such that we never were out of necessity, and she never bought herself things before she took care of father and our needs first.

媽媽是我們黃家的總務。她善於量入為出，所以我們從不匱乏；她總是以照顧老父親和我們幾個小孩為最優先，在滿足我們的需要之前，她從不會替自己購買任何東西。

9.      She brought luck to the family, she is the only one we knew who won a lottery ticket that is substantial in sums, even to this date.

她給我們家庭帶來好運。我們家人當中只有她中了獎券的大獎，即使以今天的數字來衡量，也是極大的數目。

10.  She taught us how to wash my clothes, start a stove fire and cook a meal: those skills helped us through the years away from home in college and in graduate school in the US.

媽媽教我們如何洗衣、起灶火以及煮飯菜。這些手藝在我們後來離家念大學以及到美國留學的那些歲月實在很管用。

11.  She was such a good system’s engineer. She looks 10 steps ahead and 360 degree concerns of many things. She did so it is done right the first time to avoid disasters and headache later. We try to practice this in our studies and in our carriers

媽媽實在是一位優秀的系統工程師。她在做各種事情時總是擁有過人的前瞻眼光和寬廣的視野。也因為如此，她處理事情總是穩健正確，防微杜漸，因此都能避免一步差池或事後的煩惱。

12.  She got along well with all our relatives. They are truly brothers and sisters in harmony.

媽媽和我們所有的親戚們都和樂融融，我們的親長們都是兄友弟恭的大家族成員。

13.  She was quite a linguist, she speaks the native tong of Taiwanese, she was taught Japanese and spoke fluently, she learn Mandarin Chinese on her own, she learn the Shanghainese the few years when she was in Shanghai, and when she was in the US, she learned to speak English. In August this year (2002), she was visiting Whittak in Denver to see their new resident. They had a party one weekend and have Mandarin speaking, Taiwanese speaking, and Shanghainese speaking guests. She spoke with them in different dialects. The guests were all surprised how well she remembers the languages even though she has not used them for a long time. Her talents were handed down to her children, particularly Henton. His linguistic ability must be inherited from her, no doubt, with 7 different languages and dialects.

媽媽是個語言天才。她除了說台灣話之外，在小時候學得流利的日語，後來又自學北京話。媽媽在上海的短短四年裡，她又學會說上海話；而當她到美國與我們同住的時候又學了英語。今年八月，她到丹佛惠澤的新居小住，惠澤因為搬新家，週末舉行了家庭派對，前來的客人當中有說北京話的、有說台灣話的以及說上海話的。媽媽用不同的語言和這些客人寒暄交談，讓客人們大開眼界，因為媽媽已有很長時間沒有講上海話，竟還能講得流利極了。她的這種語言天份也傳賜給她的小孩，尤其是亨通，他的語言能力顯然是承繼了媽媽的天份，所以亨通現在可以講七種不同的語言。(註︰我的三哥黃亨通博士目前在莫斯科為台灣拼科技外交，他自學俄語，到俄國如魚得水)

14.  Her standard was high for taking care of us. She made sure that we are completely without injuries through our life.

媽媽是以最高的標準來撫養我們幾個小孩的。她讓我們在成長過程中絕對不受到任何的傷害。

15.  She sacrificed for her children. She managed to buy new clothe for us even though times were tough.

媽媽總是為我們幾個小孩犧牲自己，在我們經濟相當拮岠据的時候，她還是想方設法為我們添新衣服。

16.  She was the pillar of the family, she carried us through the very difficult days with great bravery and comforted our father when his hand was seriously injured working with the machine.

媽媽是我們家的精神支柱，那一年爸爸因為被機器嚴重傷到了手指，全家陷入困頓，可是媽媽以無比的勇氣帶領一家大小衝過難關，並鼓舞爸爸從痛苦中恢復過來。

17.  She stayed with reason, when father’s job was taken away by corrupt school principle and the corrupt justice system back in the 60’s. She calmed us and father through those difficult years.

媽媽是一位極為理智的女性。一九六零年代，爸爸因為校長的貪污腐化以及司法系統的顢頇腐敗而失去了學校的工作，因為媽媽的理智沉穩，在那些艱困的日子裡撫慰我們、鼓舞爸爸，一起渡過灰暗的日子。

18.  She worked side-by-side with father in the field, during hot days and during cold, rainy days without complaints when his work is out of town.

後來爸爸離家工作，媽媽也成了他並肩作戰的伙伴，不管風雨、無論日夜，她都無怨無悔地一起在外面打拼奔波。

19.  She sacrificed for her children; she took good care of the grandchildren when she was given the opportunity in Taiwan and in the US.

媽媽為了我們幾個兒女不斷的犧牲與付出，不管在台灣或美國，她總是悉心照料她的孫兒女們，讓我們沒有後顧之憂。

20.  She sacrificed for her children; she returned to Taiwan from the US as a hostage for many years and loosing her green-card status because her son was studying under Taiwan government scholar ship, and she stayed in Taiwan as a hostage so that her daughter-in-law can join her son in the US during his study.

她為孩子們犧牲是徹徹底底的，當年她的小孩以公費生名義前往美國留學，她犧牲她的美國永久居留權，回到台灣當「人質」，也因為她留在台灣當人質，所以她的媳婦得以前往美國和兒子團圓。

21.  She sacrificed when her oversea children could not come back to care for her when she was in difficult times.

當她最低潮最難過的時刻，在國外的孩子們雖然無法回來照顧她，可是她只有思念、毫無怨言。

22.  We remember our mother as a mother who loved us, took care of us, sacrificed for us even to her last breath. Mother, we all love you deeply in our heart. You will live in us as long as we live. We pray that at the side of God, you are resting in peace and not having to carry the heavy burden anymore. Rest in peace Mother.

我們的媽媽愛我們、養育我們、為我們犧牲一切，直到她生命的終點。媽媽，我們深愛著您，您將永遠在我們心中。我們祈求上帝，讓您卸下重擔，永遠安息。

媽媽，請您安息吧！