The Nose Stud (Fuli)

 

The Nose Stud (Fuli)

(A small gold ornament that women wear on their nose.)

 

Among the ornaments kept in the locker, seeing the fuli (nose stud) pierces my heart with pain.
That fuli had adorned my wife’s nose throughout her life—before our marriage, after it, and until her final moments.

Other ornaments were sometimes pawned when we faced hardship.
Many were sold off to pay debts and interests we couldn’t afford.
But the fuli—it always remained on her nose.

When she became seriously ill and was in the ICU, they had to feed her through a nasal irrigation pipe.
Even in that unconscious state, she had pulled out the pipe in discomfort.
When the nurses tried to remove the fuli to insert the tube, it wouldn’t come off.
And so, the fuli remained there—until her very last breath.

Once, I had told her, “I’ll replace that fuli with a diamond one.”
But I never did.
She never asked for it either.
That same simple fuli stayed with her—always.

Fuli! Like that stud on her nose, she and I were one.
She never wished to leave me.
Nor did I her.
But separation was inevitable…

After her death, the fuli came off easily from her nose.
Even now, when I see that fuli, standing as her reflection—her memory—my eyes fill with tears.
My heart aches sharply.

But... like the fuli, in the end, we must all leave everything behind.
She left everything and went away—leaving only her memories behind.
That tiny fuli, which keeps her memory forever fresh...