Wedding photo of koko Kee Seng and sis-in-law Saw Kim. I am on the extreme left.... the shortest and youngest in the group. Next to me is my beautiful sister Ean Ean and beautiful mother in Nonya outfit. Standing behind mom is my lovely sister Lee Lee, and next to her in glasses - my wonderful papa.
Engagement photo of brother and fiancee Saw Kim.
Brother with his beloved daughter Yann showing off her Christmas present of a lovely set of bed sheets given by yours truly.
A welcome nasi lemak dinner for Jeff, Tyng's precious half and brother's future son-in-law.
Whenever I am at home with my relatives, I love to rummage through old photo albums.
They bring back such wonderful memories!
It is always lovely to see ourselves minus the added kilos which are inevitable with aging.
My second brother Kee Seng is a real bookworm! He has so many dictionaries in various languages - Chinese, English, Malay and Japanese. He is excellent in phonetics and that is how he has taught himself all these years. I am glad that of late, brother has also grown to enjoy some popular television serials like Jewel in the Palace and The Little Nonya. Brother and I have a few similarities. When we watch a program, we are very serious about watching it faithfully and will try our utmost to stay at home in the evenings. We are both good cooks and of course, we also enjoy tasting food lah. Brother is a better connoisseur than me. Apart from dictionaries, he also has a fairly big collection of recipe books.! Brother is frugal with himself but very generous with others.
Brother plays the clarinet and cello. Recently I brought the violin given to me by my best friend's husband, Yew Tien. As it is a full sized violin it causes me unnecessary strain with my short hands and fingers. Hence I decided to give the violin to brother as it will be very easy for him to pick it up since he plays the cello. But brother is adamant that I keep the violin for he believes once I advance in my playing, a full size violin is a better instrument to play on.
During my last visit, brother gave me some lessons on Hanyu pingyin. I hope I can improve my Chinese further and am now learning to read and write in Chinese. It was koko who pointed out that my spelling of Ganchau should be "G-a-n C-a-o" and that it means licorice, a kind of herb. My blog address will still remain the same, but my pen name will have the corrected spelling from now onwards. I hope, my blog, like the herb licorice, will continue to give encouragement and inspiration to my readers.
Happiness for me is seeing koko basking in the din created by his four grandchildren. I know koko is most happy whenever his three children and their families are with him as Tyng now lives in America while Yann is in Kuala Lumpur. Fortunately Keong lives near him and his family often join brother and wife for dinner as my sister-in-law is a great cook. Jeff especially loves her sumptuous nasi lemak - the best he has eaten. It is interesting to see an American enjoying assam fried fish and sambal prawns.
Brother is still running his business. He and his partner have been in business since the past four decades. Brother has excellent E.Q. He gets along with most people as he is generous, easy going yet perceptive. He always goes the extra mile in all that he does - whether as a business partner or friend.
I always thank God for koko for it was he who instilled the love of books and words in me when he bought me the world's smallest dictionary measuring two inches by one inch! I remember I cupped the tiny dictionary and asked my classmates to guess what was inside my palms. Of course no one could ever guess!
Happiness is when I have a brother who loves me and continues to believe in me even when I failed. My cousin, Nancy, is right when she said that koko is so much like my beloved papa in looks and character. Everyday I thank God for having given me a most wonderful brother whom I wish to emulate.
Gan Cao
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