Author Jeong-pyo

The touching story of a mother and her son with leukemia who never lost hope even while living in fear and dread has now been published in a book.

This book is the completed version of the “The 1 Year and 9 Month Record of Life and Death that a Boy with Leukemia Left Behind’ that was reported on January 27.

Lee Jeong-pyo (13), who was diagnosed with leukemia on April 1, 2005, died earlier this year on January 14. Lee, who dreamed of becoming a writer one day, wrote in his diary daily and did not let go of his pen until he lost consciousness four days before his death.

The Dong-A Ilbo article reconstructed Jeong-pyo’s diary, introducing the life of an ill child who was fighting so hard to hold on to the time the rest of us pass so easily. After the article was published, Bluebird Publishing Company compiled Jeong-pyo’s entries with his mother Kim Soon-gyu’s (41) written pieces into a 300-page book.

Following is an excerpt from a letter that Kim wrote to Jeong-pyo’s homeroom teacher in 2005.

“Falling asleep, Jeong-pyo says, ‘I won’t be so sick tomorrow. Tomorrow won’t be as painful as today. I think maybe today will be the worst.’ The only thing that a helpless mother can do to lessen the unknown terrible pain is to hold and support his hand. Leave his seat empty. Please, I promise we will send him to school.”

Jeong-pyo was not able to return to school, but the wishes of mother and son came true one by one, just like miracles.

Like Jeong-pyo dreamed, his name was printed as the book’s author. Jeong-pyo was no longer an aspiring writer, posthumously, he published his work and became a true writer.

The school he yearned to attend, Deungchon Elementary, presented him with an honorable graduation certificate on February 14.

“They called his name to award him his graduation certificate and it felt like he was still alive,” his mother Kim recalled.

Kim, along with other family members, is planning to visit a marrow bank in Japan during May with Jeong-pyo’s book. Jeong-pyo had always said he wanted to go to the Japanese marrow bank ever since a Japanese donor gave transplanted bone marrow to him on October 27, 2005.

Kim said, “It seems that all traces of him were already covered in publishing the book, but something new keeps popping up. It’s a great comfort that the people who are left behind have something to do.”

Manager Kim Jin of Bluebird Publishing said, “I’ve learned through Jeong-pyo’s life to be modest. There have been requests from the United States and other countries to translate Jeong-pyo’s diary.”

Bluebird Publishing will give 1 percent of all proceeds to the Korean Make-A-Wish Foundation (www.wish.or.kr) to help make the dreams of children with incurable diseases come true.

egija@donga.com