Uncle Roberto and Aunt Grace hosted a very joyful get together to introduce Myron to the Boston-area Engs.
I had been wanting to introduce him to Grandma Teresa ever since he was born, but a couple of things got in the way.
First of all, there is some Chinese superstition about a new mother and/or a baby leaving the house before one month after birth. Grandma told this to me and Auntie Mary helped me interpret what she was saying. This is often difficult because English is her third language, after Chinese and Spanish; also sometimes she intermixed the languages a little bit, which is fascinating. Also her hearing is pretty challenged, and she mostly refused to wear her hearing aids, so conversations with her are mostly one-way unless one is in person with her and can use pantomime. Anyway, the superstition has something to do with setting / resetting of the bones after a baby is born and the mother gives birth. Grandma blames her arthritis on the fact that she had to violate this guidance for some reason. It might have been while she was working in the pollería in Havana, slaughtering and plucking chickens for sale. So we couldn’t take him to see her during my leave, which was four weeks, starting right when he was born.
Secondly, Grandma doesn’t get out of the house much these days, not that she ever has done that much really – she has some pretty intense agoraphobia. She basically only leaves the house for events where there will be a lot of family around and (reluctantly) for doctor’s appointments. It was very meaningful that she came.
Myron is her fifth great grandchild. If we had a girl, we were going to name her Clara Teresa Eng, the Clara being from Em’s great aunt.
Grandma also likes to tell the story of how Eng was her maiden name and she passed it on to the family because her husband didn’t want to sign for the children when they were immigrating. It was an arranged marriage, and he didn’t want any part of it. If he had, we would have the surname Yi. Interestingly, my grandma’s brother’s family spells their last name Ng (which is the more common way to transliterate it). Grandma says she got the spelling Eng from a school teacher, and her brother went to a different school. Anyhow, the second part of the story as she likes to tell it is that the Yi family is dying off. I think there might be a couple left, but they didn’t have children. But there are many Engs. And as Grandma says, if you’re a bad person, your family dies off, but if you’re a good person, your family name will spread like sand on the beach.
It’s judgmental and prescriptive, but I let Grandma enjoy that one.
Myron was held by many great aunts, great uncles, great great aunts, great great uncles, cousins once removed (who are great even though it’s not in their title), and one great grandma.
