Gong Gong

I miss! Going to the history museum, somehow brought back memories of Gong Gong. I wish he was still around. I miss him! He was a firm, no nonsense, loving Gong Gong to me. He would spend the time sitting in the kitchen with a basin of cooked "lala" (clams) and one by one open it while all the grandkids queued up to have their chance to eat it, and this is after we have given proof that we have cleaned up our dinner plate and put it in the kitchen sink. When it rained, he would open the front door and look up into the sky and I would follow him and he'll say "ho lai low" (rain is coming) and I'll follow him saying it with my semi-english accented teochew. I miss my Gong Gong. At my age now, he would have brought insights and wisdom which I would savour and ponder.

Interesting how weekly family prayer all started, my Gong Gong went down on his knees and depended on God to provide his needs when he had only a few cents in his pocket, depending on God to be able to feed a family of 9 children. Things got rough during Japanese occupation of Singapore and he went down on his knees and even when Singapore got affluent, prayer meetings were still conducted weekly. How amazing! Praying for everyone in the family made us concern for each other and dependent on God, but there was the other side of it becoming too much of a habit and some may not understand it totally.