Family of Four

Remembering Grandma

The phone rang loudly in the hall.

I answered the phone. “Yes?”

“Oh! Just to inform you that Grandma… has gone….” said Mother gravely on the other end.

I put down the phone.

I was neither surprised nor stunned. I just needed some time to recollect my thoughts.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again.

“No, she is still with us. The lung machine is still on.” Mother said.

A third call.

“Yes, it’s certain now. She has indeed gone.”

That was in 1992. It has been 14 years now.

This is my recollection of Grandma.

Born into the Lim clan in China, Grandma was short in stature. She had a pair of darting brown eyes and wore her hair pulled back and tied in a bun. She was not pretty but attractive in her own way. Not much of a talker. A quiet worker. She was always dressed in a typical pair 0f dark pants and shirt as if it was a uniform.

She was our housekeeper as dad and mum were always away at work. She cooked and took care of all the grandchildren. Yes, she bathed all of us in a large oval aluminum tub. We took turns in it and she kept on adding hot water when the water cools down. At night she will wash up all her grandchildren and put them to bed.

She loved me more than the rest of her grandchildren because I did personal chores for her ungrudgingly such as pulling out all those white hairs from her head periodically and also when she needed me to knead and rub down her back to soothe away the pains of the day. She taught me thrift and was my bank, as all my pocket money was kept by her in a square tin in her large brown chest.

I still remembered vividly that one day when I came home for a visit after I started working. She was so glad to see me. Her happiness was real. She told me that lately her eyesight was failing and she could no longer watch television, her one and only pastime. Everything on the telly was blurry.

Immediately I took her to the nearest town which had an optician to fix her problem. I can still recall the gratuitous joy on her face when she put on her new spectacles and saw everything in 2020 vision.

I did not have the luxury or opportunity to see her as much as I would like to because of work. The years rolled by and she contracted Alzheimer’s disease. She no longer remembered anyone in the family and was always forgetful.

Whenever I see her, I would tell her who I was but she just smiled sweetly as if in recognition. The look on her face was suddenly distant and she would then mumble to herself.

Well it has been sometime since her departure but I still remember with fondness the many hours of quality time we spent together as grandma and grandson. I will always treasure those moments. They are ours and no one can take them away from me!

Quote of the Day:


“Grandmother-grandchild relationships are simple. Grandmas are short on criticism and long on love.” ~Author Unknown

Heartsong-Heartstrong