Matchmade (2E4 Cheryl's maternal grandmother)

             I interviewed my maternal grandmother, Mdm Tan (this is an alias), over the 

telephone on 16 July 2006. She is currently living in a HDB flat in Henderson, Singapore.

              My grandmother was born in China in 1931.  She had a younger brother,   

who passed away last year. My grandmother lived in a small village on a

hill with her relatives and parents. At that time, floods often happened

everywhere in Singapore because of the poor drainage system, but it did not

affect her family. Her father was a coolie and her mother was a house wife.  Her

father stopped working after he started smoking opium because of his illness.

Her mother and her relatives started to sell ‘kueh’ to earn a living.

                My grandmother studied in a school in China for thirteen days and then   

was brought Singapore. She learned how to read, write and speak

Chinese. She has forgotten the name of the school as it was a long time ago. From

the day she arrived Singapore, she has never gone back to study. Her

responsibilities at home were to help to do housework like cooking and washing.  

She had no time and money to play games during her childhood as her family

was too poor to afford it. At that time, they were too poor to go for a vacation

trip.

                My grandmother’s religion is Buddhism.  When she was a child she

used to worship at home but ever since she got married she would go to a temple

to worship. She was match-made to a man whom she didn’t know (her husband,

who has passed away,) by a match-maker. They only met each other once on

the day that they registered for marriage and waited another eight months before

the actual wedding was held.  She was like any other bride in her wedding gown

but the only thing different is that their wedding dinner was at a coffee shop. They

were married in 1949 and had their first baby girl in the same

year.  At 1951 they had a second child, a boy,  and the third

child, a girl in 1953. She was given away to another family

when she was six years old because that family’s children had died at a young

age.  The parents had been heartbroken. In 1955 my grandparents had their

fourth, a baby boy, and their fifth, a baby girl was born in 1966 who is my mother and lastly 

in 1969 they had their youngest child, a girl. All my aunties and uncles have only

either Secondary education or a Diploma qualification, except for my youngest aunt.  She is

the only child who had the chance to study in a Singapore University as my

grandparents could afford to support her in her studies

                  When the Japanese attacked Singapore during the Second World War, my

grandmother’s family and relative were at home. At that time she was only nine

years old. She was too young that time to understand what was happening. When they

heard the air-raid sirens , they quickly hid in the house. Most of the time,

they hid in the house. She still continued selling ‘kueh’ and only came out to  

sell when it was all clear. They dared not go out of the

house, as they afraid that the Japanese soldiers may bring harm to them. She says

that she was afraid at that time and suffered a lot of hardship during the Second

World War. When the Second World War ended, the whole family celebrated the joy

of having the freedom in our country. After the war, they made a living by

renting a small shop at Chinatown selling drinks until the owner of the shop

wanted the shop back.

                

                    Life under the British rule before the war was peaceful. But when the

Japanese ruled Singapore the Singaporeans suffered a lot of pain and loss. After

the Japanese surrendered, life in Singapore has gradually improved. As

it was not so difficult to find food as were compared to the war times.