葬禮上追思分享老嬸母過去的生活點滴,為嬸母人生劃上完美句號。 ...

My best memory of my second grand aunt was of her cooking. From when I was little and I went to visit her she would have something tasty to eat, be it traditional foods for celebrating festivals such as 『nian gao』, a sweet glutinous rice cake made specially for Chinese New Year or something as simple as dinner. Second grand aunt also taught me many things, the traditions of different Chinese festivals from why we made 『zhong zi』 a sticky rice cake for the dragon boat festival to the history of some of the lesser known festivals.

My favourite was the steamed eggs, every time we went for dinner – dad would sit down and chat with my grand uncle and mum would help out in the kitchen while I just tagged along to supposedly learn how to cook – she would specially cook this dish for me. When it was time to eat, I could always feel the love she put into cooking the food for my family and I. In fact, she had the art of steaming eggs down to perfection, the dish was easily famous and well loved among us younger generation. In fact every time our cousins came down from Sydney to visit, they would ask; 「Will we have steamed egg when we go to second grand aunt』s?」

Many of my other memories of her were of her making all sorts of handicrafts. Before I was born, she would knit all sorts of things for me; vests, jumpers and cardigans being some of the things. Some vests and jumpers matched my school uniform, and even now are being worn by my sister for school. I remember becoming interested in knitting because of that and telling her so. She just smiled and gave me a pair of knitting needles and a small ball of yarn, patiently showing me how to cast a stitch and how to knit, calmly helping me undo my mistakes even if it meant I had to start all over again. Later on when I showed interest in the crocheting after seeing the crocheted doilies that decorated her home, she patiently taught me how it was done, never mind the fact I never had the patience to get past the basic knit.

Ms Louey, my Grand Aunt and a great woman taught me many things that I know today that I would not have known otherwise. She was a major part of my life, a part that I will miss dearly in the future. Now I can only pray that she is happy where ever she is now. May she rest in peace.