Some of my fondest memories of my Ah Ma were the times spent in her home back when I was in Primary school some 20 years ago. I recall how after my Saturday ECA classes, I’ll take a long bus ride – the orange number 8 bus to be exact - from my school in the east to her home in Bukit Ho Swee where the family will gather for lunch. It wasn’t anything fancy, just simple home-cook dishes cooked with grandma’s love. My favourite was her Szechuan vegetable with pork slices – I haven’t eaten that in a long time. Lunch would be followed with the cousins messing up the room playing with blankets and toys. I fondly recall that big plastic basin under the bed filled with toys of all sorts. No matter how messy the room got, Ah Ma never raised her voice at the grandchildren. I honestly cannot recall my Ah Ma ever losing her temper at us. Never.
As the grandchildren grew up and as age too caught up with Ah Ma, lunches at Bukit Ho
Swee became a thing of the past. Ah Ma started to move around staying at the children’s homes instead. It was time we returned Ah Ma the favour of cooking us lunches. I recall one dinner when she was staying at my place. I had prepared pasta for dinner – spaghetti with garlic. We weren’t quite sure how Ah Ma would take to it but thought who said Ah Mas can’t eat Italian pasta! To our surprise, Ah Ma polished her dinner! We just told her it was “mee char xing tao”! We always enjoyed having Ah Ma over. Her presence brought much joy, noise and laughter to the home. When she was more able, her favourite pastime would be to ‘niam tau guay’ and ask for clothes that needed mending – like my shorts that have lost its elasticity. When her hands got weaker, we kept her occupied by making her pose for photos. She hated it, not because she was camera-shy but because she was ‘vain’. She would always say the photo would come out ugly because her hair was out of place or that her clothes weren’t pretty enough. I always retorted “Ah Ma, mai hyao la!” and then we would both end up laughing with her affectionately hitting my hand!
There was also the side of her you don’t get to see often. Things she does as you quietly observe her from afar. This was probably a few years ago, not long after she received Christ as her Lord and Saviour. I heard my Ah Ma saying her prayers in the quietness of the living room with birds chirping in the garden. It was a very serene sight. My Ah Ma looked happy, she was at peace. It was her personal time with God. Until her very last days, I believe my Ah Ma kept talking to Jesus even in her state of semi consciousness. God must have heard her because today, she is with Him in Paradise.
I love this photo of Ah Ma. It was taken on my birthday 2 years ago just 2 days before my wedding. Ah Ma had came over to my place to stay and to join in the celebrations. Her smile encapsulates it all – she knew she was blessed. So as we gather to mourn her passing, we also gather to celebrate her beautiful life. Blessed indeed she was as a lady who had lived her 88 years to the fullest. As wife, mother, grandma and great grandma – she has taught each generation well, she has loved each of us selflessly. Her story will be told to our children and our children’s children for generations to come.
Our lost is Heaven’s gain. We will all miss her. Miss her child-likeness, miss her curly white hair, miss her physical presence. But we take comfort in knowing that my Ah Ma is in a better place now and she will want us all to know that she is happy where she is.
We love you Ah Ma.
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