Happy Family

The caring embrace of Fukunari-sensei.  Her cup of tea and sweet were predictable but an extra treat waiting for me were the pictures of her family from her time in England.  I saw her son, his wife, and their son and daughter.  Several pictures later his wife was smaller and he was holding a baby; a family grows.  She explained how the two male children in her son's family had given names ending in "-zou," meaning "happy," like their father, like his father–something passed through generations.  It seems that a given name can be a combination of characters and one of them can come from one's parents.  Perhaps it is similar to passing along significant names in a baby's middle name in America, or the practice in Russia and elsewhere of the family name coming from the parent's given name.  And now Fukunari-sensei has a new "-zou" in her family.  Shiawase.