We all mourn her passing. She is survived by her husband, two sons and a daughter.
aunt Ik Ding was a gentle woman who had great faith in God, like like her mother, our dear Goo Poh, sister of our grandfather. She was self sacrificing and in the last two years of her life, she served as a volunteer at the Methodist Message Office as a packer. She was very popular and every one loved her. She would come, rain or shine, bringing an umbrella at all times.
Aunt Ik Ding was born in China, when my Goo Poh and her husband went to China to seek medical treatment before the Japanese War. Unfortunately they had to remain in China because all forms of communication between China and Sarawak were broken by the Second World War. Thus my Goo Poh had all her children in China during those years.
When transport from China to Sarawak was available, Aunt Ik Ding, who was below one year of age, however, was left behind in China because it was thought that she was too young to travel to Sarawak after the war. She was left with a teacher (in the photo) and a great friend of my Goo Poh and it was very much later, she came to Sibu. It was not easy to get all the documents done to permit mother and daughter to be reunited.
My Goo Poh and many capable relatives tried their very best to "repartriate" Aunt Ik Ding to Sarawak, so that she could be reunited with her Nanyang family. In the end after many years and many letters to the Chinese Government, she was able to leave China (below the age of 12). (We have to remember that China had become a Communist country in 1949.)
I remember seeing her for the first time. She had such long hair, plaited and so pretty. She had the fairness of a "film star" , at a time when I had never actually seen a film star. I remember, we children, who were studying in the Methodist Primary School, would go and stare at her and some even pointed out, "she is from Dong Sang", as if she was some kind of exhibit. We should be ashamed of ourselves for being so "sanba" - people who had never seen the world.
My Goo Poh loved her and tried to give her all sorts of food to make her grow a little more flesh, because was she was so thin. Goo Poh was such an excellent mother.
The first few years of Aunt Ik Ding's stay in Sibu must have been tough as it was definitely tough for any one who was displaced. She was the first China-Sarawak migrant that I have ever met. I was really curious. Sibu must have been very hot and humid for her. But she thrived excellently.
She studied in Ling Chu Ming School and I remember her cycling to school and returning to the Methodist 50th Anniversary Building, where Goo Poh and she stayed.
After her secondary school, a man was chosen to be her husband by a match maker, a graduate and a teacher. Goo Poh was happy that Aunt Ik Ding was to marry into a scholarly family.
Goo Poh and Dr. Chiu Nai Ding,(Grand Uncle or Jiik Gung) gave her a grand wedding. It was a proper Xin Fu Yuen Church Wedding.
Her wedding gave us kids a lot of food for thought : here was a beautiful young girl who came from China,adjusted herself in a new Sarawak culture, studied, learned some skills and became a beautiful bride, all dressed up in white, looking so grand and like a princess.
We all grew up in Sibu, and her children often came to visit Goo Poh. It was a wonderful extended family as we loved our Goo Poh too, who was the unifying element of our Tiong family after our grand father passed away.
My mother, my siblings, my children and I miss her gentleness and warm loving kindness.
P/s Remembering all the weddings we saw from our primary school windows -- I did enjoy watching them. Weddings were such grand occasions for school children of the Methodist Primary School as the school was just next to the church. We would check out the wedding dress, the grand car, decorated with ribbons and the brass band which made such a din!! It was difficult for the teachers to get the students not to look through the windows.
(It was the same for funerals. But then some teachers would tell the students that they would have nightmares if they looked at the coffins.)
Did my school mates have the same thoughts?
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