I can remember the day my father came home from the war. As he walked up the front path of our home, he saw Mum and me and he dropped the suitcase. I was only five years old so Dad made a fuss of me, then began making an even bigger fuss of my mother. This left me free to examine all the stuff lying around the broken suitcase, and I was quick to notice a newspaper advertisement displaying a new piano. When Dad saw me holding up the newspaper cutting, he smiled. "Yes, that's right," he said. "I bought your mum a piano for ten pounds down and two pounds a week." A few moments later, a horse pulled a cart with a piano on top. Soon we all stared at it in our small lounger room. Mum had never been close to a piano before, except at the kindergarten I attended, and she used to say how wonderful it would be if the teachers could teach her to play. After tea that night, Mum began to teach herself to play. She plinked the keys for about two hours and drove everybody in the street mad, until Dad gently said, "Enough is enough." From that day on, she would plink between doing the cooking and housework. Three months went by and Mum was now a skilled pianist, holding parties with all the neighbors gathering around to sing. Although we were poor, Mum felt like a princess and was delighted at all the attention she was receiving. At the height of Mum's happiness, I began to notice that Dad was looking increasingly worried. It turned out that since returning from the war, he'd been unable to find a job. Then, a few weeks later, I observed two men taking Mum's piano away. Mum sobbed in the kitchen. Suddenly, it all became clear to me: no job, no money, no piano. Dad finally got a job. Mum was happy again as if he'd just win the lottery . Dad had to study to qualify as an account. Every night after dinner he'd place a stack of books on the kitchen table and study late into the night. Mum didn't say much but I could tell she was proud of Dad. Two years later, Dad bought Mum another piano. This time he paid cash for it. What made the author's mum proud of his dad?
His dad's willingness to help cook. His dad's winning the lottery luckily. His dad's loyalty to his motherland. His dad's determination to rebuild his life.