Recently, I fall into a TV drama, ‘カーネーション‘. It is based on the life of the fashion designer Koshino Ayako (小篠綾子). She was the mother of the famous designers, Koshino sisters.
There are two characters, Yasuoka Tamae (安岡玉枝) and Yasuoka Yaeko (安岡八重子). Tamae is a mother-in-law of Yaeko. Tamae had two sons she took care of after her husband dying from a disease in a war, and both of them were killed in another war. Because of that, she carried grudges. One of her sons was Yaeko’s husband, so Yaeko lost her husband in the war, too. But Tamae said that all of them was Yaeko’s fault and blamed her. In such cases, to blame the nearest person to oneself is not at all unusual.
After the episodes of the war, the drama had some other ones, then today, the reconciliation between two persons aired. Tamae apologized to Yaeko about the past and Yaeko kept silence. But we can see Yaeko’s forgiveness on her face.
When I finished watching it, I remembered my own episode about ‘The letter.‘ As I look back on myself, I probably can’t forgive him even now. I wonder why Yaeko can do it. She is a big-hearted person, and, her situation is very similar to her mother-in-law’s, so she might get mother’s feelings very much and might sympathize with her. Still, it is very difficult for me to relive the tolerance of Yaeko.