I still can’t believe it’s real.
The news of my nomination to the Fifth National Conference of Mothers took me by surprise, and it was no different for my entire family.
But what truly left me in awe was being honored as one of the first recipients of the Communist Mother Honour Prize, despite being a humble housewife in a scientist’s family.
In our nation, there are many mothers like me, married to scientists. My husband and I hail from a mountain village in Ryongnim County, Jagang Province, and we’ve been neighbors since our school days.
After graduating from Hamhung University of Hydraulic Engineering, my husband began his career at the Thermal Engineering Institute of the State Academy of Sciences, where we later tied the knot.
As our children grew, my husband’s work often took him away for long periods, leaving me to manage the household.
Once, our eldest son expressed doubts about following his father’s footsteps into the world of research, considering the sacrifices our family endured. His words stung, making me question my role as a mother and a scientist’s wife.
But I reminded him of the opportunities our country provided for his father’s education, and later, for his and his brother’s. I urged him to honor this by pursuing a path of scientific discovery, just as his father had done.
Both our sons eventually pursued research careers, and I stood by them every step of the way.
In recognition of their hard work, my husband received the February 16 Sci-Tech Prize, our elder son earned his doctorate in his twenties, and the younger achieved a master’s degree.
Like many mothers in our country, I’ve dedicated myself to supporting my family’s aspirations, always striving to make them shine brighter than ever before.
So when I was invited to the Fifth National Conference of Mothers and honored with the Communist Mother Honour Prize, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride as a wife and a mother.
The outpouring of congratulations and the determination expressed by other women’s children to excel and attend future conferences filled me with renewed pride in having been a part of such a significant event.
I constantly remind my children to strive for scientific excellence, to repay the kindness of a country that recognized a simple housewife from an ordinary scientist’s family as a symbol of communist motherhood known throughout the nation.
Kim Hui Suk, resident in Kwangmyong-dong, Unjong District, Pyongyang
