GrandFather

My mother often shares about my grandfather’s difficult life experiences during his younger days. He left his Hokkien Henghua village to earn income for his family. He came to Singapore to work as a dishwasher in a restaurant. Those were the days where the employees were mistreated. Little mistakes were berated. Next destination is Indonesia. Naively, he signed a contract from a stranger he didn’t understand which was written in Indonesian language. In the contract, it was stated he owes the stranger a lot of money. Unable to pay it, he was locked. A Chinese passerby kindly bailed him out and explained the contract. Therefore, he warned his children not to blindly sign the contract.



Unfortunately, I made the same mistake when I enrolled to a scam school. Though my family members and my boyfriend (now husband) comforted me that I was cheated of one thousand five fifty dollars rather than an old lady being scammed all her retirement funds. It is a lot to me due to my time to save such amount.



His story had not ended there. He worked hard and saved money in reparation of bicycle wheel. Gradually, he ventured into bicycle wheel factory production. He continually sent money to his village until he had enough and fetched his parents and my grandmother for marriage. As time passed by, his business’ growth enabled him to develop cinema and eventually into movie production. One day, the news of the Chinese passerby who rescued him before passed away. The son’s business venture failed. In gratitude, my grandfather took the son and cared for him financially by giving him a job and purchased a house for him.



Definitely, my grandfather’s stories influence my mother and my family members. And I love to listen to it repeatedly.