Dedicated to my mummy

Mummy with EV and AA

My mummy. She's the greatest. She had me when she was 25, just three months after migrating to Singapore with my daddy. He didn't dare carry me, so mum single-handedly looked after me during her confinement month, with no one to brew special tonics for her. That took a toll on her health for a while, and when she had my brother, the grandparents insisted that she return to Hong Kong to have him. One month after he was born, we came back here.

She decided very early on that she would be a SAHM. She lived apart from her own mother till she was in her teens, and she was determined that her own kids won't have to go through that.

Every year she would single-handedly bring my brother and me to Hong Kong for holidays and visit relatives. I loved those trips, but for mum, it must have been quite stressful. I didn't understand just how hard it was to travel with two young kids. I know now mum. It was not easy to pack the luggage, and it's a mad house trying to get everyone ready in the mornings. Packing for the return trip was even harder, I know. I remember luggages full of toys from the grandparents.

She always made me memorize every text in the Chinese text book. I remember standing at the end of her bed reciting the texts to her. Yes, it was a chore, but I am grateful. I can still speak and read Chinese rather well, at least in my opinion. Some writing too, which is not at all perfect. These days, she's still my 'live' translator, and I still go to her when I don't understand something. 

We had our tensed moments during my growing up years. As I started work, we became closer and we would have our very own mummy-daughter outings. Now that I have my family, we're even closer. Every day we'd have our morning chat. Brief, snappy conversations that assure each of us that everything is ok on either side. A morning without these chats makes me feel funny. We still have our tensed moments, but we usually get over it very quickly.

When AA got admitted to hospital recently, and I stayed over with him, my mum offered to stay over to accompany me, without hesitation. Having her there somehow made everything easier to bear. 

This is my mummy, and I love her very much.

Happy mother's day, mummy!

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