Many years ago a new neighbour moved into my area in Luak Bay and I was glad that she was a Foochow. Soon as we took our morning walks together we got to know each other. I was totally mermerized by her stories of China.
As a young girl, she had to forage for food in the Minqing hills and she was very good to her aging mother in law (who adopted her when she was only 5 months old). She was supposed to be the child bride of the eldest son. Because of the war, she was held back in China. It was only in 1951 that she was "sent out" to Sarawak.
One of the stories she told me was about the peach gum she collected and sold to the local trader. As she was a small sized girl, she could climb the fragile and old peach trees well. She collected a cloth bag of the gum from time to time, when she discovered the resins on the tree. No every tree had gums.
She was also the one who introduced me to preparing this gum as a cooling drink.
When she moved away to join her son in his new work place we were all very sad.
A few years later we received a phone call informing us that she had a "small" accident which proved to be fatal. She passed away a few weeks later, never regaining her consciousness in the hospital.
I am sure she is now in her paradise, which would be full of peach trees and she would be singing her New Revolutional Songs (which she learned to sing after the Japanese were defeated). As she never went to school she sang all her song in Foochow.
No comments:
Post a Comment