Mum in her prime, at Botanic Gardens 1953 or so
These old pictures always bring a smile of joy to me. When my parents where young and full of life. This is how I would like to remember them, even though I never got to appreciate them until I was in my early tweens, by that time, Mum was probably 40 + to 50 and Papa was 50+ to 60. So this is one aspect of Mum and Papa I never got to know.
Mum probably had an active social life first in Guangzhou, then Hong Kong and then Singapore.Our Gong Gong, P.C. Wen was a very capable man, but left Mum, Por Por and the family for another woman. It was a very sad and desperate time for them, I can only second guess.
Coming to Singapore, they must have had to eke out a very tough existence, but all the 4 sisters, Mum, Dona, Mina and Mona, all excelled in their jobs and Aunt Mina was a housewife. Mum must have met Papa in the '50s when he was a top lawyer back in the day when Singapore was fighting for independence from the British colonial Government who had lost the authority to rule after they were humiliated by the Japanese during the '42 - 45 Second World War.
How Mum met Papa was never revealed to me, but there are old photos where she was the Girl Guides representative to meet with Prince Philip at the Padang in the '50s when he came for a visit.
Famous photo of Mum and Papa outside the Tropicana Hotel, off Scotts Road in the '60s.
Papa was a barrister and a pretty good one at that. He was working very hard first with David Marshall and subsequently in his own law firm Abisheganaden and company. So from an early time, my brother John and I were often left to our own in the evenings after they returned home from work, as Papa had an active after work social life, serving in many boards of the NUS University,YMCA, the Bible Society, St Andrew's Catherdal and the Singapore Swimming Club just to name a few. Mum was much more grounded but she accompanied him many times for the Medico Legal dinners, or the social dinner and dances held very often back in the '60s and '70s.
Mum had a full time job as the personal assistant to the Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Health, the top position reporting to the Minister for Health. She served under 4 PS, Dr Eddie Ho and Dr. Kwa Soon Bee to name the 2 more prominent ones.
Mum had many good doctors as close friends, Prof Chau Shi Ching, Prof Abu Rauff, Prof. Lee Yong Kiat, Prof Moses Yu, Yahya Cohen, Dr Teo Hoon Chow rank amongst her close buddies. They would meet af practically every gathering such as Christmas every year for the last 20 - 25 years before she passed away suddenly in 2011.
Mum with Prince Philip outside City Hall circa 1956
The days of being a carefree son in a family with numerous friends and parties are long gone. I am now a father of 2 grown men, and managing my own small business. The roles are a lot but I am managing and upholding or trying to uphold their way shone by paths they created during those heady days of parties, merriment and camaderie.
Days of old meant lots of swimming and fun at the Swimming Club at Fort Road off Tanjung Rhu. There was no East Coast Parkway highway back then in the early to late '70s, the way to the east coast was by small roads from where we lived at Adis Road, to Selegie to Middle Road, via Nicholl Highway and then Mountbatten Road before turning off into Fort Road. Roads were not well lit at night, as I recall and Singapore was a lot darker place then.
There must have been a Fort here maybe 100 years ago. The swimming club was the after school social network for me and John. We swam 4 to 5 days a week, with only Wednesday and perhaps one other day off. Mornings or evenings, they were a routine for us late starters and I have had done enough laps to last a lifetime.
I recall having to swim 2 miles or 3.2 km, 64 laps just to get a special badge, I can barely do 10 laps (500m) continuously now.
On Fridays, we looked forward tremendously to the Movie Night at the far end of the club. There under the night sky, we would watch open air movies with our cousins, Rick and Lorraine. I also recall having a friend called Thomas, whose father worked for the Club in a capacity as General Manager. We did some mischievious things back then which does not warrant an entry in this blog post, but those were really fun days.
On occasions, we would have Club Nights, where all the teens and preteens would dress us and go to the Harbour Grill where we would first eat and then the music, pop and disco would turn the floor into a dance floor.
Finally, there would always be the New Year's eve at the Club, again my parents would book a table or two and we all would go and enjoy the evening's merriment and music from the local bands.
It was really the fun and carefree '70s !
