Grandma's Gone

She was the first Cantonese woman i knew.

I always thought that the world was filled with Hainanese, Indian ladies that spat blood on the ground and Englishman that flew in on helicopters. Those were the only people i ever saw when i lived up in Maxwell Hills with my grandparents. We never had TV then. Only a radio playing what we now call oldies. It was only when i started schooling that i came down to Taiping town to live with my mom & dad. It was then that i met my other grandparents. Ah por was cantonese and Ah Koong was hokkien.

Ah Por was a cigarette rolling, thang thiu (cane, rotan) wielding cantonese woman. She seemed to be the One in control of the household. Her word was law. She didn't have to tell you that, you could feel it. It was foolish for anyone to even dispute it, only fools dare dispute that fact. All of us grandchildren have her to thank for how we turned out by virtue of her disciplining. She ruled the corridors with her ciggie and her thang thiu. She must have got tips on the art of thang thiu munn chee yuk from the then Wong Fei Hung actor Kwan Tuck Hing who she claims to have met.

On Oct 3rd, ah por left us to join ah koong at the ripe old age of 91 leaving me with her question..."ah por kei si cheng yau tak yum lei pooi chou?" which will forever haunt me.