Uncle's visit / 舅舅的来访

My uncle will visit mama this coming 26th. He will bring my 2 cousins also. One of my cousins told mama when she called:”Uncle is so happy after he bought the tickets.” My uncle is not at all an emotional person. You can hardly tell what he’s thinking, but this time he failed to hide his feeling. Mama’s maid will go for a tour from the 23rd. It’s good that someone will come and take care of her. She is so excited yet worried. “It’s so embarrassing that we are not able to provide them with a decent place to stay.” Mama’s apartment is a 2-rm flat. One is occupied by my parents. If they come, Uncle needs a room. So my two cousins have to stay in the sitting room. Besides, the place is not very clean and neat after mama’s illness. That’s why mama always has mixed feelings when she hears that someone will come to visit her. This is already the third time that my Uncle has come to see her. The first time was at the beginning of 2008. He came with my Auntie (mama’s eldest sister) who passed away slightly more than one year ago, also due to cancer (sad, cry, cry). The second time was at the end of the year before. My other Auntie (mama’s youngest sister) also came to see her three times. Each time she came, she gave mama ￥5000 and bought lots of things for her. She seldom did any household chores since she was the youngest of the family and had always been very willful. But when she was visiting mama, she always tried to help since she knew mama’s problems. She is a nun. So she always prays for mama and conducted some Buddhist’s rituals for mama. When she heard mama is getting better now, she was very happy. “Hmm, this is the glory of the Buddha and you are getting better after reciting the scripts and prayers .” She always makes long distance calls to mama and recites the script for her. She also encouraged mama to do that herself. Besides 3 of them, my other 3 cousins also visited mama about two years ago. Each of them only stayed for about 2 days’ and never helped mama. That’s why mama was very disappointed in them. She supported them economically by sending them ￥15 each month for about 15 years when they were young. (Her total salary at that time was ￥56) Now it seems that they have forgotten all about her .
Now mama is very excited. Yesterday she called my other cousin. She told me that he was also very happy to visit her. “I’m happy that I have this chance to come, since Uncle paid everything. Why not?” I hope that they will have a good time there .