Fortitude

Sometimes I marvel at the fortitude of my beloved papa and all the wonderful papas in the world. It is amazing how single-handedly these fathers could raise a family of six to ten children!!

Although we were poor, we never felt the pangs of poverty or unhappiness and depression that are often associated with the word, "poor". In fact, I felt quite rich, with the village as my huge playground. We used to play "robbers and policemen" and we would be running all over the village to escape the "policemen". Once caught, we would have our face drawn and painted with black ink! The coconut, guava, and rambutan trees would be our toys where we could climb up and my brother once even hung a swing over the thick branch of the guava tree. We were too poor to afford expensive ready made toys and came up with our own toys made from left over cloths, damaged utensils and appliances, renovation left overs and debris, etc.

We did not live in a condo with swimming pool and other facilities, but we had a great time swimming in the sea and playing in the river. It was just sheer exhilaration when we were able to catch some fish, crabs and mussels. The children in the village used the empty space in front of a Chinese Temple to play badminton, sepak takraw and volleyball. I am ahem.... quite skilful in table tennis.......trained from playing on a smaller-than-usual broken down table which used to be my uncle's wooden bed!

Papa wanted his children to learn music. Apart from the two violins, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and er-hu we had in the house, he decided to get an old piano for my sister and me. We were so thrilled when a very old piano with jaded yellow keys was delivered. Sister Ean Ean hoarded the piano the whole day, tinkering at it and playing by ear.

I love my parents so much that I could not wait to complete my studies so that I could have the chance to pamper them with my salary. Alas, papa passed away before I could even start work!
However, I was glad I was able to use my saved-up pocket money to pamper him with gifts now and then. Papa was truly fore-sighted when he said, "A father can raise up 10 children; but sometimes 10 children could not even look after one father!" How true!

It is indeed sad to see so many siblings fighting with one another and shoving the care of their parents to each other! Every sibling claimed to be too busy or too poor to look after their parents and hence the ideal solution would be to put them in old folks' homes. I guess, it is quite understandable if the parents are put in nursing homes so that professional nursing care can be rendered to the sickly parents.

Maybe, as we become more progressive with the advent of more discoveries and things to make life more comfortable, we have also become softer and weaker in physical and mental fortitude.
Walking one mrt stop seems too far; climbing up 4 storeys seems too tedious, looking after our parents seems too troublesome; multi tasking seems too cumbersome; etc.

At our previous National Day Parade celebrations, our ministers who had seen the gradual progress of Singapore, reminded us to always remember our humble roots and how we started, when the opening of a match factory was the highlight of the day and called for a huge celebration. Hence, if you do hear a youngster saying, "Aiya, National Day Celebration. Every year the same.....so boring", take the youngster aside, and tell him about the fortitude of his ancestors.

Gan Chau