Our Sweetie Piyobabies: Demise

She passed away peacefully on 23rd Feb 2014 at the ripe age of 91 years old.

She was my great grandmother, my grandmother's mother that is. For my kids, she is their grandfather's grandmother or great great grandmother. They are the fifth generation in the family. A little bit of history on the family tree here - she married young, my granny married young, my father married young but I did not marry young. Many are surprised that my great grandmother is still around or rather was still around previously when mentioned.

She had been in and out of hospital on several occasions and I ought to be ashamed that we had only managed to visit her once in the earlier days. The plan was to visit her at home together with the kids as it is not advisable to bring them to the hospital. So somewhere procrastinate to since CNY is drawing near and we will be visiting her anyway so we did not. Then on 1st day of CNY, the rude shock was she was just admitted to hospital in the morning due to breathlessness. Again because of numerous reasons, we did not managed to see her again.

She is the one who took care of me when I was young after my maternal grandmother passed on. I remembered the few families staying on the same floor thus as a child, I ran from house to house. She fetched me to and from school during my early primary school days regardless of rain and shine, taking charge of my daily routine like bathing and mealtimes. I learnt alot from her such as the proper way of crossing the road (look left, look right then look left again), not to gobble up food, how to handle hot food etc. As a child, I have always tried to run away from her trying to offering the shade from her brolly which she never failed to carry with her. Daily trip to the minimart en-route walking home after school dismissal resulting in snacks.

As we grew up, we feared her phone call because we will regard her long reminders and conversations as nagging / long-winded to the bad extent of trying to miss her calls. She is usually the first we visit during CNY and we would always joke about how we could still hear her voice when the lift descend from 18th floor till 14th floor. As age catches up with her, we could barely hear her when the lift goes down 2 storeys. The proud moments she had on the 1st CNY Zethan went visiting, he was about 1 year old then. My heart ache when she spoke about my grandmother; her daughter on how happy she would be to see Zethan if not for passing away early. She was so happy for us when she got news that we are carrying Zelyn on another CNY, we were barely 3 months pregnant then. We missed out taking photos of her with the kids the next CNY because she was unwell and resting in the room so we insisted that she rest and not walk about in the house. That was the last chance we had and missed.

It was really upsetting to hear of her demise despite mentally prepared for the news. When my dad called and informed us, my heart sank. It took me quite a while to digest the news and began to tear. The last look of her was only the next day when she was all dressed up and make up at the wake. I thought I could not recognize her! Felt really guilty that I have not seen her for such a long time so much so that she look like a stranger to me. Faulty tap can't stop tearing on the 1st and last day of funeral. I insisted to ensure that my kids send her off on the last part of her journey.

A lesson to learn, if situation permit, never ever try to procrastinate as one might never ever get to do it again. No point crying over spill milk, guilty over "If only" does not help either.....