It's Not Goodbye, Mum - 2

Hi, Mum,
How are you doing?  Time has passed by so quickly and it has been more than a week since you left us.  I miss you very much. I remember I used to come downstairs every morning to your room and see whether you were awake.  Sometimes you were still sleeping, sometimes you were already awake and asking for breakfast.  You liked boiled egg - you ate only the white (as advised by the Doc) while the cats ate the yolk!

For lunch, we would cook you noodles (also your favourite) with wolfberries, red dates, dried longan and other herbs to make sure you had a healthy, nutritious meal.  You didn't mind having the same for dinner - that's what so wonderful about you - you never fussed, you never complained!

Do you remember when this photo was taken?  It was in December last year when our good friends, Kong Su and Phaik Hoon visited us.  I'm sure you remember they were once our neighbours who moved to Perth in 1998.
You had just come back from the hospital after dialysis.  You were a little tired but nevertheless, you were so happy to see your old friends again. You sat and chatted with them for a while before they decided to leave, as they felt you should take some rest.

Aunty Phaik Hoon has fond memories of the happy days she spent with you in Penang before she left for Australia.  Here's what she wrote in an email to me recently:

"Actually, to me no words can describe Aunty's kindness and care. When we moved to Lorong Midlands (where Mum and I live), we came to know  your Mom and Dad. 

Every evening , after dinner Uncle and I would be standing outside talking and joking to them. This lasted until Ah Choo was born when I had to look after her and had no time to go  outside after dinner. But Aunty and I remained close. 

When I was pregnant with Ah Choo, Aunty used to cook "perut ikan" etc. (those appetising sour food) for me. Once when she came home from market she saw me standing on a desk cleaning my bedroom window. She shouted at me to come down as it's dangerous to fall when my stomach was so big. She continued to give me advice on things that I need to know.

We became very good friends. She used to ask me accompany her to her "Ang Kong" places to pray or to give them money to pray. We usually went by taxi. I would go over to her place to 'khow suah' for her whenever she needed to. This went on until I migrated  here in 2008. That's why I named my first born "Gim Choo" after my best Aunty whom I wish to remember until the end of my days."

Thanks, Aunty for your kind words.  I know you miss her as much as I do.

Mum, it's good to see you laughing so much and I shall try to remember you as this happy, carefree person who posed for Uncle's camera one afternoon in December.  Keep that grin going, Mum ...!