My Grandfather and Church Flowers

Today is Good Friday and it is celebrated in Sarawak as a Public Holiday. It is a long weekend since the Brooke Time with Easter Monday also a public holiday.

Methodists since 1902 also celebrate it by going to church. A Passion Play would be enacted.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My grandfather decided to build a house on the hill he was given by the Brooke (when he arrived in Sibu in 1902, he and his fellow pioneers were alloted land to open up and he quickly seized the opportunity to take the hill because he came from a hilly background in Minqing, I was told. He was not afraid of hillier land as he had no idea how to plant padi!! The others from the lower areas in Minqing were padi farmers.

My grandfather came from bamboo shoots and mountain vegetables hilly land of Wun Chieh. In Sarawakian terms, he was a highlander or Ulu man.

He planted bananas, bamboo and fruit trees and later rubber on the Sungei Merah land. He moved around to do various work for Rev James Hoover, started Binatang with Rev Yao shiao King and Ling Ming Lok, upon the advice of Rev James Hoover,a sawmill, and later he started Hua Hong Ice Factory because he could then afford an ice making machinery from the USA!

By the late 1940's he was more than 60 years old and he wanted to retire (he never retired actually until he passed away). He decided to build a new house on top of the Kwong Ang Hill, the land he originally opened up.

He reconnected with Rev Ho Siew Liong, who had been his good friend from the early days.

Every Sunday he would be in charge of the floral arrangements and my aunt Hiong would send the flowers to the Church usually alamanda, or bougainvillea. Orchids were not yet in fashion then.

Besides it it was the blooming time for the Bang Ngiik Lan, he would personally pluck the buds, place them in a basket and every church member would be given one bud at the door. It was his idea of a door gift according to Mrs. Wong, who later taught in Kwong Ang Primary School and later in Sarikei. I was very touched when she told me the story. She loved bringing home a bang ngiik lan bud.

My grandfather would help Rev Ho to make wreaths for any funerals. Yes ANY funeral. He would make one on behalf of the church, and one for the church committee. All FOC. He just loved making them. I suppose he would be thinking of the Hoovers when he was making them.

I will always remember the bougainvillea he grew which leaned on a belian tree stump. He told us a vine like bougainvillea must have a strong post to lean on. And the best post would be a strong belian post. Instead, he used the buttress of a belian tree !! How ingenious. The flowering plant never stopped blooming for as long as he lived and for a long time after that. The belian buttress might still be there on the hill if no one had stolen it.

As a child and later a teenager, I would always look at him and wonder what was actually in his mind when he went about doing things he loved. He was such an intriguing quiet man. He was holding a lot inside him.