Paper Crane

I will write peace on your wings and you will fly all over the world. ~ Sadako Sasaki

My boys at a young age were both fond of arts. The first year we lived in Riyadh, they were homeschooled and they spent their idle time drawing on their separate sketchpads. I was in need to give them activity in Arts for their assessment report. It was December at that time and Christmas decors were unavailable in the market due to Islamic culture, so we had an art project that we can use it as decor afterwards. Double purpose, right? And, our first art project together was an origami, a Japanese art of paper folding. I chose paper crane because it symbolizes hope and peace.

A little background based on Wikipedia, the paper crane origami is designed after a Japanese mythology red-crowned crane, Honorable Lord Crane. It is believed that its wings carried souls to heaven. I have no idea of this mythology so I told them the story of Sadako Sasaki and her 1,000 origami cranes. She was a Japanese girl that suffered radiation poisoning at the age of 2 when the atomic bomb was dropped at Hiroshima during World War II. She developed leukemia at age 12 and was admitted to the Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital for treatment. Inspired by the senbazuru legend she heard from her friend, Chizuko Hamamoto, she began folding a thousand cranes with hopes they would heal her. Midway through her folding project, her desire changed to heal the world instead of herself. She continued folding the paper cranes for world peace and healing. With family and friends around her, Sadako died on the morning of October 25, 1955 completing her paper crane project. She is forever memorized at Hiroshima Peace Park, where a statue of her stands with 1,000 paper cranes to make sure her message of world peace will never be forgotten. Reluctant to believe in my story, I have to show them the photo of the Children Peace Monument in Hiroshima, Japan and Sadako Sasaki Statue in Seattle Peace Park, Washington.

After showing them concrete proof that Sadako is not a fictional character, in the horror film as Enzo joked, they gathered the materials needed to make the paper crane: a4 paper and watercolor set. We followed the simplest instructions we saw online: https://www.instructables.com/How-to-make-a-Paper-Crane/ Enzo did the folding and Vito colored them with watercolor. We planned to make a curtain drape of paper crane for the living room window but ended up with only 12 paper canes. We strung them together and hanged them at the corner of the room. What a beautiful accent on a boring white wall! We're now on our 4th home in Riyadh, we could not let go of the paper crane so it is hanged in the corner wall of every house we lived in. The school project intended for Christmas decor became permanent house ornament.

I am glad that we didn't let go of this beautiful paper crane. It gives me peace every time I looked at it. I believed these paper cranes, together with his guardian angel, carried Enzo to heaven. Yesterday, I tried making my own paper crane. Holding my dear Enzo and Vito in my thoughts, I picked a clean paper and started folding it. With each crease of the paper, I started to cry, wishing to know what if healing could have been available for my dear Enzo. Then I stopped, I could not let my grief tarnish a loving memory of Enzo and Vito. I would like this paper crane to be a reminder of all the love they shared together. And maybe one day, I will find the courage to pick a paper and fold it into a paper crane with a little spark of joy and lots of our love... less pain and no more regrets.