A Japanese Woman Endeavored to Be "Real" 白正味（しらしょうみ）

This is a post about a Japanese woman who endeavored to be "real."
祖母の口癖「白正味」についてつぶやきました。英語の後に日本語が続きます。

While listening to Cheryl Lynn's "Got to be Real," I remembered my late grandmother who had nothing to do with the singer or the song but often said to me, "Be real." 

She's my maternal grandmother but I don't know much about her because we spent little time together. We lived separately and I went to her place at most once a year. I moved many times (maybe too many times) when I was a child due to my father's business. I was too busy getting used to new places and new people to visit relatives.  

She was born in Sao Paulo and grew there until the age of eight when she came back to Japan with her family. She entered an elementary school in Japan but was two years behind. She was so beautiful but fell in love with a married man and a few years later married him (i.e., my grandfather). He ran a business successfully, but became alcoholic and died of kidney failure. After that, she raised her four daughters by herself while running the business. 

She was quiet but talked fast once she opened her mouth. She rarely smiled but sometimes laughed out loud. She ran upstairs to spank us whenever I and my baby brother were chatting after bedtime. She had lived by herself until her youngest daughter (i.e., an aunt of mine) came back with her son after divorce. 

She was quite extraordinary for a Japanese in that she wasn't afraid of confronting anybody. (The Japanese avoid confrontation.) Because of such relative aggressiveness, however, she had no friends (as far as I know) and might be isolated. But for me, she was a tough but loving grandmother, often saying to me, "Be shira shomi (i.e., be real)."

About one year before she died, she registered to donate her body to medical science. As I said, we were not close at all, but these days I often remember the phrase "shira shomi (i.e., be real)," wondering what she would tell me if she were still alive.

「白正味」、お聞きになったことありますか。おそらく中国地方の方言なので辞書にはないのですが何となくニュアンスは想像できるのではないでしょうか。母方の祖母の口癖で、生前よく「（人は）白正味だよ」と言われました。

祖母はサンパウロ生まれです。そこで8歳まで過ごした後、家族と帰国し、小学校に2年遅れで入学しました。きれいな人だったのですが、既婚者と恋に落ち、できちゃった婚。4人の娘をもうけますが若くして夫に死なれた後、女手一つで四人の娘を育てました。

末娘が離婚して子連れで戻ってくるまでは一人で暮らし、死ぬ少し前に献体に登録し、亡くなりました。無口だけど早口。ニコニコはしてないけどたまに大笑いし、私と弟が夜更かししてたらお尻をパーン。家族ともご近所さんともしょっちゅうぶつかってました。

若い頃、私は父親の仕事の関係で引っ越しばかり。親戚の家に行くことはほとんどなく、祖母とゆっくり話す機会も持てませんでした。ところが先日、シェリル・リンの「Got to be Real」を聞いていて、なぜか彼女の口癖である「白正味」という言葉を思い出しました。（「Be real」から連想したんだと思います。）今祖母が生きていたら何と言うのか、私は「白正味」に生きているのか｡｡｡ 考えます｡

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