My Childhood - A Blessing in Disguise

I was born the youngest child among seven to my proud parents.

When I was four-years-old, an unfortunate event twisted my fate and that of my family’s. My dad was an up-and-coming businessman as well as a timber merchant. But his good luck was marred with cruelty - he was murdered by his employee. He was well-trained in martial arts but he could not count on that advantage as he was asleep. The murderer was sentenced to life imprisonment. At four, I had a very vivid memory of my dad. I can only remembered that whenever he came home from work, he would carry me high up into the air and swoop me down to kiss me. He would bellowed me to take his shoes and he would give me a coin before he went back to work again in the timber camp and would leave home for weeks. When he passed away, his seemingly-unlimited supply of milk which he had hoarded was still available for me to drink. That is why I have strong teeth till today. Although I can’t remember him that much, he was a great dad to me, and I would say, ‘Thanks, Dad’, I love you.

My mum was widowed at 36. She had no education but she was a tailor. When dad was gone everything was gone. Dad didn’t leave much money as he was just an up-and-coming businessman. So immediately we had to move out of the rented shop house and rent a dilapidated house where it leaked when it rained and water would seep into the floor and centipedes could appear at any moment. Mum had to juggle many jobs to take care of her 7 children. She was the sole bread-winner of the family since Dad was gone. She did the laundry for a few families as well as worked at a cooking-oil factory, earning RM2.00 per day, and in between she sews white sack-cloth for my uncle to sell at the timber camp. The jungle mosquitoes would be repelled by this type of cloth, and that was why it was quite popular among the workers. No one was baby-sitting me then. I would then follow my elder siblings to their school. When they sat in the classroom, I would be sitting outside the corridor, waiting for the bell to ring so that they could bring me home for lunch. Sometimes I followed mum to the factory. One day, a kind kindergarten principal (from a church) saw my pitiful plight and committed a random act of kindness by offering a place for me to go to her kindy (I was 5-years-old then). She was the angel in my life. We did not have to pay school fees as our education was given out of kindness. My wandering life ended and my schooling days began. Back in those days, we started kindergarten at the age of six.

Our landlady was a very mean person. She would stomp her feet when we did not switch off our electricity by 10 p.m. As a result, we could not do our school-work and were forced to light lamps. She also would not allow us to use the basic utilities like pipe water as she was worried that we couldn’t pay her due to our ‘excessive’ usage of water. This forced us to get our water supply from the public taps by the road side. When it rained, I would take an umbrella to shelter mum when she washed all the family clothes. Despite all this, we were held in high esteem by the landlady – she took the most pride in us among all her other tenants.

I had a good and nice white dog – his name was Darling. He would always follow us whenever we went to the roadside to do our washing and bathing, and assisted us whenever we needed to carry back water to our home. He was a smart dog. But one day while following us, he was knocked by a fast-moving bus. I was at home and I waited for him. He never came back to me. Fearing the worst, my brother delayed the tragic news. It was a very sad day for me. I cried buckets of tears and couldn’t be consoled. I had always loved dogs but now I try to detach myself from this emotion as my four kids take over the space.

During my tough childhood days and living in a mixed community, I realized it was a blessing in disguise; for it was during all those years that I learned to speak local Malay very well and many Chinese dialects as well. To name a few they are of course my very own dialect Foochow (from my dad’s side), Hokkien (from my mum’s side), Teochew, Hakka and a little bit of this and that. No regrets. Thank God for keeping all our siblings well and in the pink of health. We finished all our secondary education and many of us are successful in our own ways today. And we pursue our external studies during our working years.

In times of poverty, we learnt to appreciate life and also what richness really meant. When we were poor, we learnt that we should always appreciate what we have, and not to take things for granted. And most of all, I learnt to be humble and to have proper respect for everybody. I thank God for my blessings in disguise as it made me who I am today. There is a saying that goes ‘opportunity only knocks once’, so even if you feel that you only have little blessings in life, appreciate them - because you never know if you’ll have that opportunity again.