My paternal grandfather

It must have been more than 40 years ago. Imagine a boy who is keen to be somewhere else. Who can hardly converse in the language/dialect of the old man (then in his late 70s). And he has nearly 40 grandkids yet he would ever so often have breakfast with this grandson. 

We would have two dishes: Pork Pau and chicken Nor Mai Kai. They serve it now in the airport lounge here in Singapore. And every week I would partake of it. 

This week, coinciding with the ghost month (the Chinese version of celebrating the dead), I thought of him. I just chatted about him and his life with my parents last week. I thought of him then too. 

He didn't have the easiest life but he raised his family best he could and that extended to looking after me (with food mainly - from local breakfasts to nourishing exotic foods like ginseng and pig's brains which he would stew lovingly and walk it over in the evenings - mainly for me much to the chagrin of my siblings 😀).

The years were not kind to him. He developed a form of senile dementia and in his case sadly, he could remember the more unpleasant moments of his life and then started imagining shenanigans in the present. 

He lived till a hundred and independently so (by himself at times). He ate moderately (the photo of my breakfast this morning is twice what we would have) and he lived moderately too. A lifetime of frugality ensured that. And more impressively, he remained a man of fierce integrity.

Simple as his life has been, his experiences are worth retelling and I shall - in some way or form. 

For the moment, I'd just remember him fondly and lovingly during this ghost month.