Last year, I worked in a middle school near my mother’s house, and I stayed with her for a month. During that time, I helped her do some housework and buy some food.

After the first week, I noticed that the food was eaten up very quickly. Then I began keeping an eye on my mum. To my surprise, I found that she would put some of the food into a paper bag and go out with it at about nine every morning. And finally, I decided to follow her. I saw her taking the food to the street children. She would also spend a lot of time talking and playing with them.

One day, I talked to a neighbor and found out that my mum was well-known in the area. The children were very friendly with her and even thought of her as their own mother. Then it hit me ---why wouldn’t she want to tell me about it? Was she worried that I would stop buying food if I found out?

When my mum got home, I gave her a big hug. I told her she didn’t need to keep it a secret from me. She told me something about the children. Some of them lived with an old lady in a small house. Others slept on the street. For years, she was helping the poor street children by giving them food. After she told me everything, I was so moved by how selfless she was. She helped others in need. As her son, I was so proud of my mum.

I continued to buy food for my mum after that. But I always added one more bag for her other children.

I was sitting in between my parents on a 15-hour flight from Toronto to Seoul, where I was going to negotiate a book project. My Airbnb had enough room for us all. So when my parents brought it up as a half-joke that they would come, too, I didn’t think it was unreasonable.

I was merely 8 when we embarked on our immigration journey. Korea was their country. They wouldn’t need me there as they did in Canada. But the first week proved to be rough. We were upside down with the time change. My father announced that the first thing they wanted to do was visit my grandma’s grave (坟墓). We had discussed visiting a few relatives, but going to grandma’s grave had never come up. It was starting: family obligations seized my work time. “You guys go,” I said. While my father showered, my mother took me aside. “Your dad has always been counting the days for the moment when he can show her how well you grew up.” I laughed but I was deeply moved. So I decided to accompany them.

As we approached the graveyard, I gathered some colored wildflowers from the parking lot and tied them with a long piece of grass. My parents got busy weeding around the headstone. ”Your name is on the back, my father said. “See here?” I looked, and there was my Korean name carved beside those of my siblings and cousins. It felt odd to see our names on the headstone all of us, the living and dead, connected. I saw a link in a chain that stretches generations back.

I didn’t know how to tell them that the trip was amazing. I realized how I was intertwined with them, and they were interwoven into me. We don’t belong to languages or countries. My grandma died only four months before we moved to Canada, when she was too frail (虚弱的) to make the trip. I hope she knows that we did take her, and that maybe all we have is each other.

From Hawaii to Bali and the ski-slopes of Perisher, 26-year-old Jimmy Antram has seen plenty of the world. But it has all been from the vantage point (制高点) of his mother’s back. Fulfilling a promise she made to herself to give her disabled son the best life she possibly could, Niki Antram has spent years travelling the globe with Jimmy clinging (紧贴) to her shoulders.

Jimmy was born with physical and mental disabilities, including blindness, and requires round-the-clock care from Ms Antram. He has a wheelchair, but Ms Antram has never enjoyed using it. She’s content to carry him while she’s physically able and helps him walk short distances on his own. Incredible photographs taken around the globe show him clinging on as they hike through mountains and rain forests.

Ms Antram makes a detailed plan and calls ahead for every place she wants to visit—whether it be a restaurant or hotel.“Even if I know we will be okay, I like to inform the companies to make sure they understand and are okay with having us there,” she says.

She counts herself lucky that they have similar interests. They both enjoy the outdoors, the water and adventures. “From Hawaii to Bali I’d be staying out all night with Jimmy because he was a party animal like me at the time,” she says. “I will find ways with Jimmy to get him the best and most adventurous life.”

When they’re not travelling, they wake up in the morning and go for a bike ride Jimmy in the trailer while his mother peddles for them both—as the sun rises. The pair smile and wave as they pass their neighbors. People who were once strangers have come to know and love Jimmy, and admire Ms Antram. Before their early outing, she’s already made breakfast, fed Jimmy and dressed him for the day. Her schedule is exhausting, but she’s determined to give Jimmy the best life she can provide.

Ms Antram says her heart “broke” the day she learned her son was permanently blind and it took a long time to overcome those feelings of hurt. “Being a mom, I didn’t get that carefree life that most moms get,” she says. “I had responsibility.”