My grandma is 72 years old this year. She
was born on 6th March 1934.
She was born in Malacca. She had 10
siblings. Here is the list of my grandma and her
siblings:
Sim Kay Swee, which is my grandma,
Sim Kay Leng,
Sim Bee Kong,
Sim Kay Long,
Sim Bee Tiong,
Sim Bee Seng,
Tay Bee Wan died at a very young age due to a high fever which was not curable in
those days.
As my grandma was the
eldest child in the family, she did most of the housework
and helped her mother
to look after her younger siblings. Every day, when she came
back from school, the first thing she did was to hug her siblings. She doted on them
most. My great-grandpa
was a principal and my great-grandma was a housewife.
Grandma was not
the playful kind. She did not play games. There wasn't any
television set during that time, so great-grandpa would bring them to the whole family
to a nearby street to watch puppet shows at night.
The happy childhood had soon turned into a nightmare for grandma.
The
day when the family
was having reunion dinner, they heard the sound of
bombs dropping from
the planes. On February 15th
1942 , the Japanese
invaded Singapore
crisis.
Every day they would hear
screaming and shouting in the streets.
Grandma and her
sisters cut their hair, dressed up like boys and put black
soot on their
beautiful faces in order to be taken for boys.
As a principal, great-grandpa
would punish his students. Before the
war, there was a boy in
his school who was very rebellious and notorious, and
was a big bully. Great-grandpa would always lecture him. Who realised that he
would be a collaborator of
the Japanese soldiers. He gave great-grandpa's details to
the Japanese soldiers and
made up stories that great-grandpa was anti-Japanese. The
Japanese soldiers captured great-grandpa
and took him away. He was never seen after
that. He was probably killed. Grandma lost her father when she was 9.
After the Syonan
years, grandma and her family were suffering from
starvation. Great-grandma went around to sell her jewelry and met my step-great-
grandfather, Tay Kim Seng. My step-great-grandfather was a nice guy. He is three
years younger than my great-grandma. They had five children.
My
grandpa, Ho Tock Beng was a rich good-for-nothing.
His father ran a gambling den, opium shop and paint shop.
Grandpa did
not work. Everyday, he would go to his father's gambling den to
gamble.
After his father's death, slowly he became penniless.
Grandpa
often ask grandma for money. Whenever grandma refused to
give him money, he would start to abuse grandma using belts,
broken pieces
of glass to cut her and threw things at her. Grandma often got
injured and
still had to do the housework. My mother and her siblings would help to do
the house
work. Grandma tried to
commit suicide a few times but was stopped by
her children.
In 1981,
grandma and family moved to Bukit Purmei. Grandpa did not
move with them. He stayed with his friends. Grandma did
not have to
face anymore torture from grandpa from then on. My mother and her
siblings
dote on grandma.
Now grandma is
staying with one of my aunts who was single. Grandma
has high blood pressure and homeostasis. Her legs are very weak.
She has
to take a lot of tablets. She was not as strong as before. She
was brought
to church every Sunday by my aunts and mother. She was baptized
on 3rd
June 2004.
Now, Grandma is
leading a happy and simple life. She is walking closely
with God. Her hardships were changed to servant hood. I hope that
she
would continue to serve God and that God would bless her.
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