Late 1970s, Toa Payoh Lorong 5, 1-room flat, 7 adults, 2 children. This was my first memory of family, of education and of living in Singapore. My parents did not own their own flat yet, so they put my sister and I in the care of our maternal grandparents. At night, I slept on the floor in the doorway of the only bedroom next to my grandmother. I would wake up to the sounds of my aunts and uncles getting ready for school and work, or to one of them stepping gingerly around or over my grandmother and I.
I went to the PAP kindergarten at Toa Payoh Central. Perhaps that was why I eventually took up a government scholarship to read Law at the National University of Singapore, some 14 years later. God and the Singapore Government work in mysterious ways. My "Ah Ma" (grandmother) would send me to school; we walked the 20 minutes or so each way together. She would go marketing while I learned my ABCs and did a lot of colouring.
Here comes the remarkable part. My Ah Ma had arrived in the 1940s with her two oldest children, after escaping to China momentarily when the Japanese occupied Singapore. With her husband, a trishaw rider, she raised 7 children through odd jobs (she was uneducated and illiterate). Toa Payoh was in the 1950s littered with pig farms.
This is for the naysayers, and for those who criticise the overwhelming 'power' of the Singapore government in controlling the lives and livelihoods of the populace. The youngest son of my grandparents is now a medical doctor. Three of the 7 kids went to university, two to polytechnics, and the other two (including my mother) had primary and some secondary education. My grandparents are now dead; all their children own property and have made good careers for themselves. My cousins, my sister and I - the so-called third generation, have little idea of the poverty they suffered, except through stories that they handed down, and through our parents' recollections.
I am now pursuing my doctorate at an American university. My grandmother couldn't write, and couldn't speak or read English. My one regret is that she died before she could see me graduate from university. When I walk the stage in two or three years' time for Commencement, my memory would be of her. This PhD - and this short article - are dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, and to Singapore at a simpler time.
Article migrated from original My Story Portal 2007.
Author. Jlmlb