These photos were taken at the end of March 2018. Today I saw a friend for the first time in almost two years. Her son successfully completed the junior high school entrance exam and will be able to attend the school of his choice in April. So, to celebrate, I pulled out the cherry blossom photos.
The entrance examination alone is hard enough, but her son developed an incurable disease last year and had to be hospitalized for a month at the end of the year. This was right before the entrance exam. It must have been very hard for him and his parents. However, the doctors at the hospital where he was hospitalized all had experience taking junior high school entrance exams (as expected!). With the encouragement of the doctors, he was able to complete his tutoring school assignments and pass the entrance exam. My friend smiled cheerfully and said, "It was a lot of hard work!".
The last time I saw him was when he was in preschool. I haven't seen him for about 6 years now, so I guess he must have grown up so much that I wouldn't recognize him if I passed him around.
Anyway, well done and congrats!
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写真は2018年の3月末に撮ったものです。今日は約2年ぶりの友達に会いました。彼女の息子くんが無事中学受験を終え、4月から志望校に通えることになったとのことだったので、お祝いに桜の写真を引っ張り出してきました。
受験だけでも充分大変なのに、息子くんは昨年難病を発症し、年末に1ヶ月間入院することになってしまったそうです。入試の直前のタイミングで・・・。本人も親も、とてもしんどかったと思います。でも入院先の病院のお医者さんたちが、みんな中学受験経験者で（さすがお医者さん！）入院中も先生たちに励まされながら塾の課題をこなし、合格することができたのだそうです。友達は「いろいろ大変だったんだよ～」と、カラカラと笑っていましたが。
私が息子くんに会ったのは、彼が保育園の時が最後です。もう6年ほど会っていないことになるので、その辺ですれ違っても分からないくらい大きくなっているんだろうなあ。
おつかれさま、そしておめでとう！