The day after Popo passed away.
I hope she left with no regrets, and I am sure she is sitting in heaven right now watching over us.
Memories of time spent with her will always stay with me.
1) As a small boy, I remember her driving me around Sabah in her small red Honda, either to visit shopping malls or to buy groceries. It was just cool to have a Grandmother who drives.
2) I will always remember her as a formidable chef. Whenever we were in Sabah she would cook up delicious meals of boiled chicken (plus the oyster sauce), chicken herb soup and lots and lots of beef and chicken balls. For tea-break, her boiled corn with butter was just delicious. Her home-made prawn crackers needs to be mentioned as well.
3) Conversations were always spiced up by her. When I was younger and unable to understand much, I would sit in the car with my family on road trips in Sabah. Conversations would be peppered with her comments, which I didn’t understand, but since they were almost always followed by unanimous laughter from the rest of the adults in the car (which would be my dad, mum, Gong Gong and uncle), I knew she had an original sense of humor.
4) She always liked and appreciated new and interesting foods. And she would not hesitate to show her liking for nice dishes. Whenever we tried our new restaurants she would be the most curious to sample the dishes.
5) She would be the most caring person, sometimes to a point of excessive worry. But that made her a very personal and the warmth she showed will perhaps be the most lasting memory of her. (Even the vegetable seller she buys her groceries from came for her wake)
At this point I don’t have the full story of how she left this world, but I know that it was as sudden as it was unexpected. I must admit I had expected her to live to see my wedding.
I know that some things in life are inevitable, and I will embrace this with the knowledge that I managed to hug her before she left for Sabah a month ago. Gong Gong and Popo were going back to Sabah via Johor, so they were taking a hired private transport. It was just before my A’Levels and I was busy studying, but I’m glad I chose to take that short 10 mins to send them down. Hugging her and staying on to wave her car off, little did I know that would be the last time I see her. I wish I had taken even more time out to take them for lunch at Din Tai Fung or Crystal Jade (she loves the fried pig intestines there. But if we live our life regretting the many 'little did we know's, we would be seriously overwhelmed.
For now, I’ll just give all the support I can to Gong Gong who must be devastated to lose his life companion. I pray he will, with God’s guidance, manage to move on.
To my dearest Popo, I hope you are now in the most peaceful and comfortable place, surrounded by nothing but pure happiness. You will always be in my heart and I’m fortunate to have spent 18 years of my life with you around.
I sometimes wonder if there were happier moments in my life. And I ask myself why. Is it because I was more carefree? Less busy? Or simply just ignorant? I look at my baby photos, and I realise, happiness has nothing to do with what's going on in your life.