My Beloved Gramma....

Can you guess which one's my Beloved Gramma?? She, of Peranakan heritage, was given to an aunt for adoption. But of cos, they were just staying next door. That probably explains why she dressed differently from her siblings,

Here, is a photo of her siblings and herself...

From the top left, the gorgeous Grand-aunties:

Grace (3rd), Lilian (4th), Lucy (2nd), Allen (1st)

And the hunky grand uncles:

Andrew (4th) and William (3rd) - - *Mike(2nd), not in photo, passed away

While I used to play alone in my gramma's house in hougang, making 'jewelleries from paper, Lovely Grand uncle William (like a huggable bear), used to visit gramma and gave her massages. One day, he asked me to make a ring for him, and I had to use my aunty's thumb as a refernce, and till now, he still remembers me and the ring I made for him, which he claims he kept it in a book in his book-case....

My impression of gramma is of which, she likes to smoke and 'listen' to cantonese opera on TV, relaxing in a rocking chair. If anyone thought that she was asleep and attempt to switch off her TV set, she will wake and exclaim that she was indeed LISTENING to the TV!

She's not quite the traditional woman, cos when my mum and her sisters were teenagers, gramma will allow them to go out for tea parties, dance lessons at the CC or just outings, telling them: "Go, Go enjoy." It was my first uncle (technically, its 2nd, cos the 1st passed away at infant stage) , who stood at the door at night and waited for their return with a frown on his face.

My Maternal Great-grand father was a village head. Hence, gramma married (*arranged marriage) my grandpapa (whose father or himself was also a chinese village head) . Her siblings, married other Peranakan/ malay/Eurasian... And they mainly speak Hokkien, Bahasa Melayu Baba and English.... Only the descendent line from my gramma learn and speak mandarin.

And she picked up smoking because of her sinus...

I used to play in her midst of smoke, and at times ''warn" her,

cos TV was showing this heart panting while climbing the stairs

Here you can spot a lady who was dressing differently.

That's my gramma! hehe... She's about 1.7m Tall!

My sis did a family tree a few years back, and we got to know that our Maternal Great-grand ma has portugese heritage. (YES, with golden hair and blue eyes)

According to my mum, gramma had an eldest sibling who passed away during the Japanese Occupation, being tortured....... I didn't know until I blogged this entry... Which kinda upset me, considering that I was (and still am) fasincated by Japanese lanuguage and its fashion.. ..

erm......

Anyway, Just wanna blog about my gramma (deceased on 1989).

I recalled crying hard at her funeral because she took care of me since my baby days. She bath, cloth and feed me (猪肉粥）, I was pampered cos she doted on female grandchildren more (or so I heard).

I recalled once the otah seller thought that i was eating plain porridge (because the fish bits are white too) and persuaded my gramma to buy some non-spicy otah.

I recalled playing with her plastic figurine of Jesus and Mother Mary like I did with Barbie dolls. (Grandpapa & Gramma's a catholic)

I recalled her putting 香水into my hanky and her teaching me not to hold the chop-stick too high or too low (too low means short-lifed, while too high means - - difficulty in eating la)

I recalled her taking me to see the chinese sinseh (those in vans that drives to neighbourhood areas) because the adults were worried why i cant seem to put on weigh or has poor appeitite. (*now, i am eating way too much, the medicine works too fine)

Now I still tear when I tot of her. I hope that she'll be able to see how we are getting on now. At times when I felt no one loves me, or when I meet with some frustration, I will think of her and how she loved me.

Gramma, I miss you.