It was hard for the girls especially. The eldest of the brood, aunty Heng Sieng was not willing to go back to school so she stayed home to do the chores and Grandfather said when a good and suitable suitor came along, he would marry her off.
7th aunt, chiew Sieng and 8th Aunt Pick Sieng were just teenagers themselves and they looked after the other 3 younger sisters. My fifth Uncle was soon to study in Singapore and 6th Uncle upon completing his junior high, would be leaving for Kuching to study in St. Thomas'
Grandfather arranged with Mrs Hoover and Mrs. Summers to have the 5 daughters board in the Yuk Ing Girls' School.
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| My 7th, 8th and 9th aunts, with their first cousin, Ik Sing in Sibu. |
In this way my 7th aunt in her tender age of 16 was both mother and sister to the three younger ones, assisted by my 8th Aunt.
From then on, the siblings looked forward to going home during the holidays but they studied very hard at school. My 7th aunt was to be the first in the family to complete Junior High School in Methodist school in 1949 , after which she joined join my older aunts in Singapore where she completed her Senior Middle High School.
She was full of admiration for her younger brother Yu King, my 6th uncle, who was very bright. He was one of the few Foochow students who completed Junior High in Sibu, studying in both the Chinese and English session schools.
In those days, most parents could only afford to send their children to Chinese schools. Only the very best (and also the wealthier ones) would study English in the afternoon session. I suppose in those days it was like doing a double degree with honours.
My 8th and 9th Aunts were very good, and they did the double session school. Later my 10th aunt went to St. Theresa in Kuching and was the top student in the whole of Sarawak for Cambridge Exam. My grandfather treated her like a Government Official who passed the highest Qing Dynasty Civil Exams or Jor Nguong when her results were know, and published in the newspapers.
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