MyStory

My personal hero is my late grandfather. He was someone ordinary but he had an extraordinary spirit. He knew how to serve others with a pure heart, not expecting any reward. He was selfless and was willing to sacrifice for others. He had great mental strength and he went through a lot for himself, his family and his loved ones.

My grandfather taught me a lot of things. He taught me that no matter what happens in life, I need to have the mental strength to move on and let things go. He also taught me that I need to look on the brighter side of life no matter what happens. There are always two sides to a coin and it is the same with situations that we all face. It is just how we handle them, to choose between looking towards a positive or negative side of life.

When my grandfather was young, he left his homeland and came to Singapore with my grandmother and his first child, my uncle. He started a farm in Sembawang and this was how he raised his nine children up and kept the family going. Though life was not easy in those days, he had this determination and perseverance to want to bring his children up to be people with strong moral values and to give them the best of life that he could. Indeed, all his nine children grew up to be people who are successful in life. Therefore, I admire him for his mental strength and his courage to pursue something that might seem so difficult in those days. 

When I was young, he used to take care of me because my parents had to go to work. Despite his old age, with uncountable wrinkles on his face, and having an injured ankle for a long time, which caused him to be unable to walk very quickly or steadily, he would still go to the nearby coffee shop to buy my favorite ‘carrot cake’ whenever I pester him to. This tells me a lot about him. It tells me that he was willing to make the effort to go and buy something that may be insignificant, even though he might be very tired and have to tolerate the pain on his ankle. To me, it shows that he was willing to serve and sacrifice for others selflessly.

Four years ago, he was diagnosed with Pneumonia, and the doctor said that he could not survive more than a year. This news came to me very shockingly as grandfather had always been a healthy person. Instead of him worrying about himself, he actually consoled us and said that this was an old age sickness. He was already very thankful that he could live for so long. Indeed, this relieved us.

Since then, he was in and out of the hospital for quite a number of times and we were devastated, for this meant that grandfather could be in a critical condition anytime, and that his condition was getting worse and worse everyday. He fought with this illness for four years, even though a lot of us thought that one year would be the end. I am really proud of his perseverance that got him to fight for himself, and to fight for an additional day of living.  

He passed away not long ago, on the 30 June 2008. It was the time where he left me physically, but not in my heart and mind. I just want to thank him for all the many great things that he had done for me.