Daejin Ryook and Lauren Woo
Interview transcript
Lauren Woo (LW): What do you miss most about Sunga?
Daejin Ryook (DR): Her big smile. And, uh, she loved to call three to four times a week. “Hi Daddy.” In Korean, “Hi Ahpah.” “How are you doing?” “Did you have dinner?”
(LW): Did that make you smile?
(DR): Of course. I miss that. I miss that. Maybe if she’s alive right now she could get married, she got some baby, but that’s not possible. It’s not gonna happen to me.
(LW): If you could talk to Sunga right now, what would you want to say?
(DR): I’m sorry and I love you. Because, I never said I’m sorry to my daughter. I never said I love you to my daughter. I was kind of tough father to Sunga.
(LW): You wanted her to be tough.
(DR): Uh-huh. But even though I didn’t say that kind of words, probably she knows it.
(LW): Oh, she knows that…
(DR): Probably she knows.
(LW): She knows it. I know that.
How are you different now than you were before you lost Sunga?
(DR): Sunga was an only child. That means only me and my wife has to live on. When we go to bed–
(LW): Yeah…
(DR):–that time is kind of pretty lonely and sad. We just sit on couch, watch the TV, 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, sometimes 3 o’clock in the morning. We don’t have any, uh, desire to work or desire to eat, desire to sleep. Nothing. After we lost our daughter, we lost everything.
