Actor Nam Bo-ra. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) provided]
Actor Nam Bo-ra. [Herald POP (now Herald Muse) provided]

Actor Nam Bo-ra opened up about the financial hardships she experienced growing up as the eldest of 13 siblings.

Appearing on MBN's variety program "Sokpurisi Show Dongchimi," which aired Saturday, Nam reflected on her childhood. "When I was young I didn't know because I was just a kid, but looking back as an adult, I realized our family had it really tough," she said.

"My parents were never home," she added. "When I grew up I realized it was because they were always out trying to earn money. I figured that out late."

She went on to describe how the family's utilities were sometimes shut off. "Even though they worked hard to cover living expenses, there were just too many of us and it was never enough. There was a time when the water, electricity and gas were all cut off at once — when bills pile up and pile up, they get cut," she said. Nam recalled not understanding why the family cooked with a portable stove when there was a gas range, and described how her mother would boil water so the children could wash their faces by mixing it with cold water.

Asked what the family did when the electricity was cut, she said, "Streetlights are brighter than you'd think."

Nam said the lack of bathrooms meant everyone had to wash up quickly and get out, but added that she had no sense of unhappiness as a child. "I thought our family just lived like we were camping. I'm really grateful for that," she said, and went on to say she had almost no negative memories from childhood. "I just took things as they were and moved on."

When fellow guest actor Baek Il-seop remarked that her parents were remarkable for raising 13 children and noted how much that must have cost, Nam said, "I didn't understand it either. I wondered why they had so many kids, and whether it wasn't hard on my mother."

"But now that I've had a child myself, I used to just think my mother must have had a hard time and feel sorry for her," she said. "Now I think — my mother got to feel this happiness 13 times. That must have been wonderful."


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