REMEMBERING MATERNAL GRANDMA

Remembering Maternal Grandma Remembering Grandma on Cheng Beng day (of 2013): My grandma was a brave and tough woman. She took upon herself the self-imposed duty to ensure that there was an ample supply of firewood to fuel the kitchen stove. We lived in Kuala Lipis, a small town on the fringe of the tropical virgin rain-forest of Pahang. We relied on firewood as fuel for cooking. Alone, my grandma would go into the forest to look for firewood, over the hills and valleys looking for fallen trees and branches. The forest was protected and one could not fell any tree for firewood so she had to cover a wide area to collect enough firewood. Then she would carry the firewood back and cut, saw or chop them before storing it in a neat pile under a tin-sheet roof. Sometimes she would ask us to help to carry the firewood back, either tied in a bunch or as a long piece of log, and I just dreaded this because I found the wood so heavy and it was really difficult to carry the wood back home. My grandma would be most distressed when the flood came and carried her firewood away. She would make every attempt to rescue the firewood that was floating in the flood water. My grandma collected firewood for my family in the forest until the age of 85. Remembering grandma on Cheng Beng day. When I was in year one, I had to walk to school (Clifford Primary School) which was about a kilometre from my house. On the way I had to cross a road used by motor vehicles. Every morning my grandma would accompany me until this road, which was about 400 metres from my house and see that I had safely crossed the road before she turned back to go home. She did this for the whole of my first year in school. As I recalled my maternal grandma who look after me when I was young, it was difficult to hold back the tears of gratitude and good fortune to have been brought up by such a kind, caring and loving grandma. My grandma was a very, very kind person and all the poor children in the neighbourhood could attest to this; she always had something to give to the poor and hungry children whenever they came by, despite the fact that we were quite poor then.. It coulkd be a biscuit or just some plain rice with gravy. She had not held hatred nor malice in her heart towards anyone, as far as I can remember. When she had been so kind to the neighbour's children, how much more kinder she had been to me, her own grandson.