Friday, June 04, 2010

My Dad As Gardener

My Dad, after migrating to the US with my Mom, would often work as a gardener of sorts from spring to autumn. He told me he has a selection of mountfield mowers that he uses to trim yards and that these mountfield lawnmowers help a great deal in the work he does.

He'd also do some landscaping work, sometimes even having to haul big rocks and move around huge planters acoording to what his employers demand. It's hard and tough work, leaving him at the mercy of the sun and working from morning till night. He said the job pays well and there's a lot of people wanting to hire him and he'd often have to say NO to a lot of them because there was only so much work he can do. He's just glad that there are all those mountfield mowers and other equipment that lighten his load.

I've spoken to hubs about how it saddens me that my parents, at their age, are still breaking their backs to earn money when they have already all supported us through college. But life abroad is really hard and they're really bent on supporting my sister (till she becomes a full-pledged nurse) and hopefully sponsoring my brother and nephew when their petition gets approved. That's still a lot of time to be working.

It's also one of the reasons why hubs isn't so keen on migrating. He said he couldn't do manual labor, despite his heft, because he has a weak back. Of course we could apply for other jobs but it's still one thing we have to be able to embrace: the willingness to do manual labor to earn, if we're going to live abroad. After all, who knows how expensive things will get or how lucky we'd really be.

Anyway, my Dad is on a break from work and is in the country right now. I am just thankful that he's still really healthy and may he really have more years remaining to enjoy his grandkids.

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