Great Grandmother : Her Legacy and last days

 When my father changed job and we moved to Sibu from Pulau Kerto, Great Grandmother moved to Sg. Merah to stay with my grandparents, Tiong Kung Ping, at his request. In his household was a loving adopted daughter Aunty Ah Hiong who would be serving Great Grandma with love and dedication for the last few years of her life.

Great Grandma was given an upstairs room, at the top of the stair case, so she had to be led by Aunty Hiong upstairs every evening after dinner. She nibbled her food and was a very small eater. Sometimes her meal was just a bit of rice, or a bit of porridge, pushed down by some home made salted fermented soy beans, and a small morsel of tofu.

Grandfather always ate first and alone, as was his practice. Or was it Grandmother Siew who supervised that? We were too young to know or understand the hierarchy of partaking of food then.

Every Sunday would be a fun time for us kids because it was time to visit our grandparents and Great Grandma in Sungei Merah.

My father would give a few pieces of historical nuggets to us as we drove the 3 miles to Grandfather's house. Great Grandma made cloth shoes, a skill she had learnt in China and brought over to Sibu. Thus my older aunts like Aunt Lily and Aunt Phyllis wore cloth shoes when they went to school while most girls would be barefooted. My father remembered that well and was very proud of the fact.

Great Grandma continued to make cloth shoes for every one in the family who liked them. And she had her own shoe making tools. We kept her Shoe Making Stand for a long time but once during a house moving, some one took it. It was a real museum piece of our family. A "T" wrought iron stand for her to flatten soles or for her to sew together soles and uppers.

She was a woman of simple needs. She loved her Ovaltine in her own room. Aunty Hiong would make sure that she had a flask of hot water and some drinking water in her room. Great Grandma's room was always neat and Spartan. She taught us by role modelling and passed on her neatness to all my aunts.

She was a very keen rice wine maker. Although bound footed, she would totter around and get help from Cousin Yew Ping to do all the mixing and pouring. It became a family business when she had extra to sell. During the Japanese Occupation, she even gave Japanese soldiers treats when they came to mill their rice. This was to prevent them from going around the Hua Hung Complext, looking for women.

She also made very good Pangi Cheong, the small crab sauce which Cousin Yew Ping would catch in the mud by the buckets. The two would process the crabs, clean them well, salt them and then mill them after a day. The sauce would be poured in recycled formic acid bottles and placed on the sun deck. the warm tropical sun would help fermentation to take place better. Every one would say that her pangi cheong was the best in the world.

She sewed well and most of my aunts would wear what she sewed.  Sometimes grand daughters and grandmother would "recycle" pantaloons belonging to Grandma Wong and make lovely blouses, all hand sewn, stitch by stitch. This was continued for a few more years after the War, after Grandma Wong passed away. According to Aunty Chiew she and her siblings were all good seamstresses because of her influence. Great Grandma was a very patient seamstress. When my aunts went to Yuk Ing School, Mrs. Hoover loved them because they could already sew so well. Sewing as an important subject under Mrs. Hoover. And my aunts were really top of the class in sewing, thanks to a very skillful grandmother.

In the last few years she spoke less as her memory was fading. One of her favorite past times was to sit by the window over looking the valley. 

Aunt Pick and Great Grandma Wong Ni Mui

In her last days, she would suddenly exclaim, "There he is, he is coming up to the hill!"

Grandmother Siew probably knew that Great Grandmother was having a premonition about her impending death

I often wondered what was in Grandfather's mind as he watched Great Grandmother fading away in her small frame.

And like she was all through her life, she never had someone hold her up even though she had bound feet. She held up herself until the last day of her life and died in her sleep. She never had a doctor come to the house for house calls. She had a very strong Fujian will and would not rely on anyone who was not willing to be of help to her. She was a very positive person and never liked fake people (although she never said it aloud).

Her funeral service at the Sing Ang Tong was a grand one for almost all the Tiong Clan came from Sg. Bidut, Binatang, and Sg. Merah.

It rained incessantly from the time the coffin was taken out of the church, down the road to the cemetery. It did not stop raining during the burial and my grandfather was drenched completely but he refused any umbrella over his head.

My Grandfather designed a huge grave for his father, his step mother, his wife and himself which eventually became one of the biggest single family plot in the old Methodist Cemetery. It was a record size for a long time.

May God bless her soul.