The $4.99 that brought my mom and me together

We bridged the holes in our heart closer with cold beers. I’ve been editing our [Best Money I Ever Spent series]( since it launched several lifetimes ago (in December of 2018), and since then we’ve published 70 installments about topics as various as top surgery, ferry tickets, lawyer fees, detective books, seatbelt extenders, baby formula, and yarn. It’s one of the most fun and rewarding parts of my job, and has recently become more so because associate editor Melinda Fakuade is joining me at the helm. This week’s piece, primarily edited by Melinda and written by Akina Chargualaf, explores the writer’s relationship with her mother after her father’s death, as someone straddling the cultures of Guam and Japan and figuring out how grief figures in. [It strikes some of my favorite notes in these sorts of pieces, making a singular and specific experience feel somehow universal](, and exploring what the value of a seemingly simple purchase can really be. We’ve got lots more to come over the next few months — including, soon, our first-ever Best $0 I Ever Spent. Stay tuned! —[Alanna Okun]( senior editor of The Goods The best $4.99 I ever spent: A six-pack after my father’s funeral [illustration of a six pack of beer]( Dana Rodriguez for Vox It took me until my father’s funeral to understand how different my mother’s grieving process was from mine. Not because she was his wife of 30 years and I was a daddy’s girl, but because she was raised in Japan and I was raised in Guam. Unknown to us, we had lived in two separate worlds, my father often serving as a bridge. And without him, we quickly discovered how significant that gap between us was. Three months prior, my mother and I had flown to Japan to lay my grandfather — her own father — to rest. Dressed in a black ensemble with our juzu beads in hand, we attended his wake at a Buddhist temple and said a thousand prayers that would seal his vase. [That night, I watched a grieving widow and daughter with iced towels wrapped around their necks and Asahi beers in hand, slump on the couch recounting long-forgotten memories.](I heard my grandmother’s voice crack, then laugh, then sob, while my quick-witted mother reassured her that everything would be okay — that they still had each other. As much as I wanted to join in, I quietly retreated into the guest room, taking the cue that this special mother-daughter moment was always carved out for them. [Read the full story »](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Money Talks: Navigating unemployment two years into the pandemic Ryan and Julie, a couple working in the entertainment industry, [spoke with us about their finances]( in April of 2020. Here’s how things have changed. [Read the full story »]( Where teen influencers go to become actors Brat TV, a small Hollywood studio, wants to be the middle ground between Netflix and TikTok. [Read the full story »]( More good stuff to read today - [Can TV take down the cult of the tech founder?]( - [Why it costs money to get your own money]( - [The video essay boom]( - [Yup, the Russian oil ban means gas prices are going to suck]( - [A day in the digital life of an internet it-girl]( - [The long, strange history of anti-vaccination movements]( - [Nice raise. Too bad about inflation.](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Manage your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe](param=goods). If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Policy]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2022. All rights reserved.