On Mother's Day I started to write this article after my relatives and I got together to talk about old days in Sibu. Being all women we talked about old day style of going to "do our hair"., about their hairdressers and how they could share some gossips with a listening hair dresser of their choice.
Being regular customers their hair dresser had all the time to listen to them. Sibu women liked to get a good hair wash and have their hair done. some did it every week like clock work, some only did their hair for occasions.
For my mother's group of friends in the later stages of life, they would meet every week at the Palace Hair Salon and shared news, just like the way we share in our WAG groups.
So today I share the story of the love of a father who passed away prematurely.
As late as the 60's in Sibu, electricity supply was not for every one. So for a suburban area near Sg Antu, any one having a generator was considered a lucky man.
Aunty was a young apprentice of a hair salon and was introduced to a young man who owned a small farm, a wooden house with a generator!! He was thus quite a good catch for her.
And after she got married she quickly became pregnant which made her husband and in laws very happy. She lived a peaceful and happy life with her husband and in laws.
Coming from a poor family, she did not have the financial support to learn hair dressing in Singapore.
this is the story of her life.
While her baby girl was just a few months old and another baby was on the way, Sibu flood came furiously. The baby girl was always crying and one evening she started having a fever.
As there was no electricity supply in their area along Queensway at that time and they depended on a generator. In order to save money they switched off the generator as soon as it was time to sleep and get ready for the next day.
the baby cried non stop that night, so the frantic family asked the young father to start the generator so that they could see better in the darkness.
It was a very tragic end to him because when he started the engine, the electricity supply was strong enough to kill him as he was standing on knee high flood water.
It was such a tragic end to a young life.
Aunty never remarried. She gave birth to her second daughter prematurely. She started to work again, "doing other women's hair, making women happy....". That was her professional career and she raised two girls while remembering the love of her husband.
She has been very good at her job, no one would bother to look at whether she had certificates hanging on her wall on the wall.
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