I feel like I am still in a dream.

I was surprised when I heard that I was nominated to the Fifth National Conference of Mothers. Nay, the whole family were so.

What was even more surprising was that as a housewife of an ordinary scientist family I was honoured to be among the first Communist Mother Honour Prize winners.

There are many mothers of scientist families in our country. I am one of them.

My husband and I were born and raised at a mountain village in Ryongnim County, Jagang Province. As next-door neighbours, we attended the same school.

My husband graduated from Hamhung University of Hydraulic Engineering and worked at the Thermal Engineering Institute of the State Academy of Sciences. There we got married.

We had children, and they went to school and university. But my husband was away for most of the year for his work.

Once my elder son who was about to graduate from a university said that he had no idea of becoming a researcher like his father in consideration of hardship in my life.

Listening to him, I felt that I failed to function as a mother and a wife of a scientist.

So I told him: Before you think of my life, think first of your father. The country ensured that the man from a mountain village went to a university free of charge. So your father has followed the road of scientific research to repay the benevolence. You have also studied receiving a scholarship from the country. You should follow in your father’s footsteps.

Afterwards, my younger son also graduated from a university and embarked on research work like his brother.

So I have supported my husband and two sons through their research work.

In recognition of their efforts my husband was awarded the February 16 Sci-Tech Prize, my elder son earned a doctorate in his twenties, and the younger, a master’s degree.

All mothers of this country take it for granted that they devote themselves to making their husbands and children more presentable than any others.

But when I was summoned to the Fifth National Conference of Mothers and awarded the first Communist Mother Honour Prize, I was filled with pride as a wife and a mother.

After the conference, many women came to congratulate me and told that their children said they would become heroes and doctors so that their mothers could attend the next conference. Such remarks made me feel again the pride of having participated in the conference.

I always ask my children to make scientific achievements so as to repay the benevolence of the country that put forward a housewife of an ordinary scientist family as a communist mother known to the whole country.

Kim Hui Suk, resident in Kwangmyong-dong, Unjong District, Pyongyang