nonya culture

Nonya culture, east meets west. Food loving blog.

Thursday 25 July 2013

My Daddy

My dad passed away but the precious  lessons in life that he taught me will stay with me always.

I'll miss those long father and daughter chats we had. He was the only one who understood . 

Yeah I always talked back and am as stubborn as he was. He once said I should have been a lawyer as I loved those debates and had to always get the last word. He got the last word in out final conversation due to his very strong insistence and I was planning to continue our conversation when we next meet. Never did get the chance. Not on  this lifetime anyway. I look forward to seeing him again in the after life where we can continue our chats. 

Daddy was the eldest of 8 siblings. As a child,growing up in Katong, he already went out to work selling epok epok and taking on jobs to support his siblings. He hardly talked much about himself but shared with me our family history, the achievements of his dad , how amazing my mom is and positive things about everyone else . 

He saw my pain during the trying times in my life and shared his very personal experiences too, which encouraged me and reminded me that I was not alone.

In our last few chats, he taught me that people can change. He saw so many changed lives because of Jesus that he had lost count. He told me to pray for those who hurt me so that they may change and stop the damage.

He told me about his own mistakes and how God rescued him each time

He told me never to forget that I have a great God. To turn to God whenever I am I trouble as God will always come through. All this he shared with me so urgently and insistently as if he knew his time here was almost up. 

When he turned 70, he said that man has a life span of 4 score and 10 or something along that line, which translates to 70 years. Every year beyond that is a bonus year.

He had visited the places he wanted to go, done what he wanted to do. At the start of the year he told mom he wanted to me up with a whole list of people.

In his last 2 weeks he suddenly had the energy to dance on and on with mom. The year end party his friends organise was somehow brought forward then. On his last day he hada enormous appetite to eat his favorite food with his buddies. It seemed to me that God took care if his servant all the way to the end, giving him his heart's desires before taking him home. The bits and pieces I heard from mourning friends and family point in that direction. 

His body was cremated. When it came to the time to choose the I he for his urn, even that was taken care of. As we stepped into the first of 25 blocks, the first thing we saw was a vacant lot beside a deceased good family friend. We knew that was the best spot for him. Mom already decided a sea burial for both of them when the time comes so it was a single lot for dad until then.

God took care of every detail.