A 'Posik' father's belated repentance, a chronicle of his 'life-threatening' love for his granddaughter > News

Lee Yong-sik's tears were not just tears of joy celebrating his granddaughter's first birthday. While preparing for his granddaughter Lee El's first birthday party through TV CHOSUN's 'Joseon's Lover', he revealed without filtering the regret he had for his daughter Lee Su-min, which he had buried in a corner of his heart. In the past, when he had to commute to work while watching his daughter sleep due to his busy broadcasting schedule, he seems to have harbored a sense of self-reproach for a long time for not being able to maintain his position as a father. For him, this first birthday party was not simply a place to celebrate his granddaughter's growth, but a kind of atonement and a new promise to make up for and practice the love he had not been able to give to his daughter through her.

The reason his confession is even more heartbreaking is because of the crossroads between life and death he experienced. In 1997, when she collapsed from a myocardial infarction and was on the verge of death, the sight of her young daughter Sumin praying earnestly in front of the operating room was an incident that deeply resonated with the public. For Lee Yong-sik, who overcame that crisis and made a miraculous recovery, his family became not just members, but his will to live. Now, as he faces the precious life that his daughter gave birth to by starting a family, he seems to be trying to find the reason for his survival in protecting his granddaughter's growth. His declaration that he would ‘give up his life’ is not just rhetoric; it is the most sincere confession that only someone who risked his life and came back alive can make.

Lee Yong-sik’s change is also in line with the universal father figure in our society. In the past, fathers had to sacrifice time to connect emotionally with their children because of the heavy responsibility of providing for them financially. Lee Yong-sik was also a typical Korean head of a family who was unable to narrow the physical distance between himself and his daughter amidst the trends of the times. But now, through the new life of his granddaughter, he is trying to wash away his past regrets and show more attentive and dedicated love. This can be said to be an example of a mature adult modifying the way he or she loves over the generations by facing the wounds of the past head on rather than avoiding them.

From the marriage process of Wonhyuk and Lee Soo-min to childbirth, Lee Yong-sik's daily life is completely reorganized within the framework of family. In particular, at this first birthday party, he read a letter to his granddaughter expressing his true feelings that he could not convey to his daughter, declaring the second chapter of his new life as a grandfather. He claims to have evolved from a 'fool for his daughter' to a 'fool for his granddaughter', and pledges to spend as much time with his granddaughter and give her as much love as possible. This clearly shows how he goes beyond his professional persona as a mere celebrity, and how he heals his own deficiencies and restores his family community as a human being.