My grandma is definitely one of the most interesting individuals I’ve ever privileged to meet on surface of this earth, although she have a hard time remembering recent events, but her mind is like a time capsule from the past. She have a talent for remembering every single event that had happened to her and her family in great details, it astonished me. Let me put it in perspective, she always forgot where she put her cooking knife even though she practically put it in the same place after she used it, but she managed to remember what she ate and where she hide during the Japanese occupation in Malaysia some 53 years ago. When she is not busy cooking or asking people to eat lunch or dinner, she’ll spent time talking about her past because she knows I love great stories, on average each story session lasted for about 2 to 3 hours, but it usually doesn’t feel that long at all.

Journey to the west

When my grandma was young, she love to spent time reading “Journey to the west”, although she never went to any formal Chinese school before, but she finished the book with her younger brother’s assistance. I once saw the book in our local library, I picked it up and flip through a few pages, I don’t understand a single word it is saying because it is written in traditional Chinese characters, and I studied simplified Chinese characters during primary school.

That story book is basically about a group of interesting individuals journey to deliver the holy book to the west, along the way they face fierce resistance from humans and monsters who tries to eat their group leader. In the group there is a monkey that can kick serious ass, a horny pig that lust for cute girls, a barbaric man that used to eat humans, and a monk that tends to attract scary monsters. Each of them have their own weaknesses that need to overcome before they can complete the mission successfully.

Some Chinese take the story quite seriously, so does my Grandma, she take the story to a spiritual level. Although I personally do not belief that a well dressed, talking, horny pig that love womans ever existed, but it is no doubt an interesting story that my grandma told me more then hundreds of times. There is a Hong Kong television show about this story too, but it is never as good as my grandma tells it. My grandma said that all the current world religion derive from the same story, the way she put it all together does make some sense if you turn off your bull shit detector, but I reckon it is way too controversial to put it down in writing.

Daughter in law

It is tough to be married and to be a daughter in law during the early 1970′s, her life is confined with her family because at that time there is no television, no radio and no supermarkets to keep her occupied. She pour all her attention to her children and husband, but life doesn’t really appear as it seems to be. She stayed with my grandpa’s family for around 10 to 20 years I assumed, and to her account it is the toughest period of her life.

Some member of my grandpa’s relative aren’t fond of her presents in their family, based on what she told me, she is poisoned, accused of doing many bad things, vocally abused and even cursed. That’s the reason why she react so emotionally during her favorite soup drama because she can easily relate to them. It is a common scene to see my grandma tears up when the heroin is violated, sometimes she even scold the bad guys out loud in front of the television.

Married to my grandfather

My grandpa is a traditional macho man, his presents symbolizes a physical form of testosterone, I think that statement itself is an understatement. I never really get to know him personally because he pass away before I get to know my father’s family. Base on my vague memory of him, he doesn’t really talk much, he always has a cigarette dangling in between his lips and his favorite form of transportation is his old rusty bicycle. What I know now is all based on what my grandma and my father told me.

Thanks to my grandma, how I treated woman now is based on her pass experiences with my grandpa. There is never a day gone by without her complains about my grandpa, even when he is gone for almost 12 years now. She always says my grandpa is not romantic enough, never really communicate with her, and never show his affection towards her. But deep inside I know she still miss him even though she deny it repeatedly. How does my grandma talk about him every single day without any love for him?

She is not alone

She is passionate about her grandchild’s well fair, she prays for us every day without fail. But I am guilty of not being there for her all the time because of my obligation in the city, I tried to make up with her by hugging her and talked to her whenever I went back. Luckily my uncle is there to take care of her, but my grandma beg to differ, she always says that if my uncle is married and have some children she’ll travel around the world instead of staying at home taking care of him. Of course she said all those things to force my uncle to get married, I’m sure she cherish my uncle’s company.

Like what the Chinese elders always says, “she ate salt more then I ate rice”. I hope she’ll continue to live a long and healthy life because her block buster story is too good to be gone. There is no doubt to me that my Grandma is one of the greatest woman on this earth, even though she been through so much she never loss her love for us. I love you grandma.