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Michinori Matsuzawa
Tomako is Kei’s mother and Michinori’s wife. When Michinori dies from the same heart condition that impacts Kei, she helps her daughter overcome her oppressive sorrow by encouraging her to strive for happiness and imagine her father watching her grow. Kei realizes that Tomako must have incredible strength of spirit to understand her husband so well and to put on a brave face while she herself is grieving.
Tomako Matsuzawa Quotes in Before the Coffee Gets Cold
The Before the Coffee Gets Cold quotes below are all either spoken by Tomako Matsuzawa or refer to Tomako Matsuzawa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4 Quotes
“…If your father could see from his box and see you crying every day, what do you think he would think? I think it would make him sad. You know how much your father loved you. Don’t you think it would be painful for him to see the unhappy face of someone he loved? So why don’t you smile every day so your father can smile from his box?”
[…]
Kei understood for the first time how hard it must have been for her father. Her heart tightened at the thought of how devastated he must have been, knowing that his time was up and that he had to leave his family. But by finally taking into account her father’s feelings, she also understood more fully the greatness of her mother’s words. She realized that only a deep love and understanding of her husband would have allowed her mother to say those things.
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Tomako Matsuzawa Character Timeline in Before the Coffee Gets Cold
The timeline below shows where the character Tomako Matsuzawa appears in Before the Coffee Gets Cold. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4
...father’s death as if he had become trapped in “a very dark box.” Kei’s mother, Tomako, maintained a cheerful disposition after her husband’s passing. This baffled Kei, who asked her mother...
(full context)
