Dad what was your relationship like with your family when you were growing up

When we were growing up, we had a very loving closely knitted family. Mum was the uniting factor while dad gave us the impression that he was a discliplinarian and often many of us siblings were afraid of him. As we grew older we know both our parents love us very much. Though we were not rich, we were not spared our delicious meals, our toys and even enjoyed the luxury of televisions, radios and some basic electrical appliances such as the refrigerators.

I do remember the days when we had to work hard to chop the firewood and my dear grandfather will be the one who wakes up at 5 am to boil the water using fire wood and a small runner piece cut from the tyres was used as fire starter. I am sure grandpa had great live for us and he made sure that we were comfortable as possible. Once when grandpa was alive there was some arrangement with Alec Bus company to supply us with drivers who drove us to and fro school.

We were close to our granny too who was a good cook as she was a nyonya who cooked some of the curries and worked hard in the kitchen until a time when she was not able to walk. Then you can see my dad, your grandfather taking good care of his parents. He ensured that they had medical care and that my grandma was well looked after. She had to be helped by 2 persons to the dining table. Our aunty Sam Ku had to bathe her in her room with small bucket of water. Such service done daily requires a lot of sacrifice and could only be done when there is much love for each other. Grandma died in 1968 and is buried at the Larkin Cemetry

Similarly Grandpa was a loving person and I remember making him bent down for me to ride on his shoulder treating him like a toy horse. Granpa loves to go out every day when he was healthier and always come back with a stick of sweets either Fruitella and later Menthos. Grandpa loved all of us and just a few days before he died, he called all his children that were available and verbally told them how his assets were to be distributed and how we ought to share the family home we were staying in. It was very emotional but he did it and then on the day of his death in December 1966, I remembered shivering in school and shortly after, my dad or a family member came to fetch us from school early.