Description Like flowers that bloom together and become more beautiful, our family story is happier because we're together. The great birth of our family! "Dad, can we never see Grandpa again, now that he's passed away?" This year too, morning glories bloomed beautifully by our window. Mom was delighted, saying she now had a curtain of morning glories. Seeing the flowers made me think of Grandpa. He especially loved morning glories, and no one tended flowers better than he did. The day Grandpa passed away, I saw Dad cry for the first time. In that moment, more than the sadness of losing Grandpa, I noticed how much Dad's profile resembled his father's. And I wondered—Grandpa always used to say that even a hard life on earth was better than none at all, so where could he be now? Had he become a bird, soaring freely through the sky? Or a cloud, drifting gently along? When our turtle Jjujju died, Grandpa told me, "Everything that lives eventually dies. Nothing lives forever." "I don't want anyone to die. I'll never get to see them again." "Dying doesn't mean you can never see them again. If you truly want to see them, you always can." Yes—Grandpa told me that if we truly wish to see someone, we always can. Just like the morning glories blooming from a single seed by the window, and when those flowers wither, new sturdy seeds form and bloom again—morning glories are always with us, and in that way, life continues on forever. Do you know how Native Americans introduce themselves? What happens when, one day, a family member who has always been by your side is no longer there? What if a day passes, then a month, then a year, and you still can't see them again? What if you realize you'll never see them again—how do children come to accept that empty space? Being born, growing up, aging, and facing death are all just as natural a part of life as a child growing up. But children may understand death as simply sleeping, or going away on a short trip. That's why very young children sometimes seem carefree even while the adults around them are grieving deeply over someone's passing. Then, at some point, they too come to feel a deep sense of loss over someone's death, along with the anxiety that someone else close to them might disappear as well. The author shares the honest reflections that inspired this book, based on her own real experience: "A few years ago, my father-in-law passed away. My two daughters, who had grown up showered with their grandfather's love, struggled for a long time to accept his death. My younger daughter, still just a little girl at the time, would say things like she'd seen Grandpa passing by somewhere, or that he might pop out from behind a telephone pole shouting 'Peekaboo!'—innocent words that broke the hearts of everyone who heard them. Not knowing what else to do, I took her to the library and borrowed books about grandparents passing away. Through borrowing and reading these books again and again, she slowly came to accept her grandfather's death and was able to process her own grief." So what exactly is death? Once I die, do I simply disappear and cease to exist? 『The Birth of a Family』 answers this question in its own gentle way: just as morning glories bloom, wither, form seeds, and bloom again, life goes on and on. Even those who have passed continue their lives through those who remain. When Native Americans introduce themselves, it's said they also introduce their parents, and their parents' parents, all the way back—because it is these ancestors who gave them life. Without family, we wouldn't exist today, and we too become part of someone else's family, continuing the chain of life. This is the astonishing power of life itself. A meeting more miraculous than any miracle—its name is 'Family' The very first thing a child encounters after being born is family. Family is the starting point for the world the child will go on to live in. The more time spent together with family, the more memories accumulate, one by one. But how much time had to pass for us to meet under this seemingly ordinary name, 'family'? Grandfather, grandmother, mom, dad, older sister, older brother, younger sibling—each meeting us with their own precious name...