Author: Tan York Cheng (CCPE)
My paternal grandmother didn’t stay with my family when I was young. I remember she would take a bus on her own to visit us, and my memory at that time was how active and healthy she was.
Another memory of her was how happy she was when my brother was accepted for an exchange programme to Taiwan during his JC days. All dressed up, she took photos with my bro, my parents and I. I recently saw the photo when packing my room, I thought how proud of my brother she must be!
I also had memories of her making orh kuey for us to eat, and how we all had to drink the red date tea during first day of CNY when we visit her. I never thought much about it back then, but it must have a lasting memory on me cos every year after reunion dinner now, I would ask my mum if she was preparing red date tea. LOL
Years later, things didn’t turn out that well though. She never stayed with my dad even though he was the eldest son. When we were younger, my dad was in and out of job and our family had problems making ends meet. My uncle wasn’t happy that my dad didn’t do much on his part to take care of my grandma and eventually lodged a complaint to the Tribual for Maintenance of Parents. My brother and I were shocked as we were both young and were only in our first year of work. We had to give some sum of money to my grandmother as a result, in addition to giving our parents. And we both had our uni loans to pay off at that time too. Our family relations got a bit sour and the family grew apart.
