Auntie

I finally had the opportunity to meet “auntie” for the first time, the last time for almost 5 hours.

I have heard about her from KW all the time.

Auntie is KW’s mom. Single-handedly raised 3 children from the, fair to say, day they were born until they graduated with at least a Master Degree from London School of Economic and Political Science.

The first and the last time I saw her, we were in the same car for 5 hours enroute Singapore. Very motherly, yet stern. You can see hard work and struggle on her face, in gesture and emotion.

I know a lot about her, not during the 5-hour cruise down south, but through KW – one of my closest buddies who I can talk about ANYTHING with.

She is EVERYTHING to KW as his father was never around. But softhearted KW still took care of his dad when the dad was battling cancer but defeated last year.

Auntie used to run snooker centers and slot machines joints. You can never imagine how hard she had to face and deal with the intricacy of the underworld and the authorities. She retired a couple of years ago when the children are pretty much independent and quite successful.

Her last job was watching Bloomberg everyday. Neither she understood the Financial Reports nor the language. She only watches probably one-tenth of the screen – the stock market flicker – to keep track on her investment. Whether she bought on rumors or fundamentals, I never could tell. I remember though, once I gave her a market tip, through KW, she gave me a bottle of wine and whiskey – which KW drank them all, I think. I used to tell KW, it takes more than red wine and whiskey to shake corporate information from me – like I was that privileged to obtain such sensitive matters!

I still remember since pre-cancer days, KW regularly had dinner with his mom. I could normally guess what’s on the menu at her place. Steamed fish. Is that her specialty dish or she tried to eat healthy? I am not quite sure. One thing for sure, she would not have kerang – cockle – on her dining table. A taboo.

Once when KW was small, he was not allowed to eat cockle because of potential hepatitis related diseases. Being hardheaded KW one day ate that at home. Mom literally dumped the food onto the dining table. KW never took cockle since that day. Even today if KW ever saw cockle in my plate, he’d be shitting in his pants.

She was KW’s EVERYTHING.

KW called me like at 5 or 6 in the morning a couple of years ago. I thought he was high and stoned at the club or something like that. Nope! Worse than that! He spun the brand new 3 series mom bought near KLIA after dropping mom at the airport for her one-week holiday to China. KW told me, the scariest part of the accident was when the car spun, the image of mom appeared and asked himself: How the fuck am I going to tell her… Luckily KW managed to get the car fixed on time and she only learned about it weeks after. Being the only son (Chinese some more!) KW got away with it – like in any other cases.

I owe auntie a big one for sharing an individual, a son to her and a dear friend to me.

Auntie passed away a few hours ago after fighting a losing battle called cancer.

May God bless her soul.

With all other challenges KW is facing right now, I am very sure he will be a better and stronger person.

My deep condolences to the whole family, especially Auntie's children and grand children. They are going to miss her forever.


FUNERAL DETAILS:

Today 13th March 2008
2.00 to 5.00pm or 7.30 to 11pm
Xiao En Centre Hall 7,
no. 1, Jalan Kuari.
Cheras

image from www.metafilter.com/19807/