Grandma

Here, referring to my mum's mum. Somehow, I found myself wordless while typing this - and sorry for the bad English.

She's a 大埔客.

According to my mum, she was one of the prettiest woman in her village.

And maybe because of that, she's serious about her look.

Even when my sis took a photo earlier this year, she asked my sis if she looks fat or bad in the photo.


According to my dad, when I was just born and took out from hospital, it was raining heavily.

He said that he won't forget the moment - When we arrived at granny's house, my granny took over me from my dad's arm.

According to my parents, my current Chinese name 焙元 was adopted with the help of her from the temple - my original name 禾粦didn't give me good health.

My granny was good at making the Chinese food.

It's a must to praise her Hakka cuisine :)

Yong tau foo and especially Abacus Beads (read an article HERE, I wanna try it next time when i'm in SG!!!)

Abacus Beads

It was quite some time ago when we last tasted her Abacus Beads, mainly due to her leg problem.

For festive season, she would make rice dumpling, Chinese mooncake (I particularly like the Shanghai version than the 'ice skin').

For my choosy mouth when I was small, she once advised me: 有得吃就吃，有得疴就疴 (Literally translated as "Can eat, eat. Can shit, shit" means don't be picky)

Another sentence that I would recall is "食屎疴飯" This is used when she jokingly scolded my aunts.

I like her soup. But it's partially my grandpa's help as well - apart from her really tasty soup, my grandpa, who is quite thrifty, would add in the instant noodle seasoning packet (chicken flavour, of course) instead of salt.

My grandma was popular among the direct sales persons. She could be easily convinced. And that's why, she had been spending a lot of money on those products - even though my grandpa was always unhappy of that.

Her Rheumatoid arthritis (it's easier to known as 風濕病 ) got worsen in recent years.
That constrained her mobility.

There's a photo earlier that I lost a chance to take, which I thought was very loving. - when coming out from the lift, my grandpa was holding tight of her hand to assist her in walking - just like those young couples

A month ago, there's some pus in her leg - and yes, she's a diabetis patient - my grandpa brought her to a clinic. The doctor took out the pus, but the wound had never recover.

Then few days later, the wound got worsen and she was admitted to hospital.

It was until two weeks back, my godbrother(who's a doctor) mentioned that her right leg need to be cut because the wound will never heal.

So two weeks ago her leg was cut.

Psychologically, we understand how she feels - for a person who's once very pretty and serious about her look.

She refused to eat and to drink.

And until last Wednesday, she suddenly spoke a lot, and was energetically scolded some people :P （now we know that it is 回光返照 [lightning  before death] )

After that, she can't speak anymore.

Few days back, doctor mentioned that many parts of her organs were infected - especially her lung.

That made her impossible to speak and in the past few days, we knew that she tried very hard to speak - but just couldn't.

She was sleeping most of the time. When she opened her eyes, she tried to look around anxiously for my grandpa.

Today, at 3.15pm, she passed away.

The whole case evolved a bit fast - it all happened within a month - which she had gone thru the painful process.

When I heard the news, I was in the meeting. Right after the meeting, I walked to the emergency staircase and cried for a while - I don't know why, I just can't help it.

Maybe it's not easy to lose someone close. Or maybe I'm happy that her suffering had come to an end.

I hope my grandpa can be strong on this.

Rest in peace, grandma. We love you and we will miss you much.