My Mum Anna and Dad Geoffrey aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2003, being invited
to dine at the Captain's table
There are 2 most wonderful women in the world in my mind. my mother and my wife. My mother Anna (1930- 2011) was and is the most wonderful person in my early years. She was the Personal Assistant to the Permanent Secretary (PS) of Health for almost 40 years having served 4 PS in her time, the last being the honorable Kwa Soon Bee for the last 15 years of her working life.
My Mum was originally from Canton (Guangzhou) and she was the eldest of 4 sisters and 2 brothers (one half brother). She was very driven yet kind hearted person who raised my brother and I up. In the '60s of our infancy, she held a full time job and was a good mother to John and myself ; in those days when the pace of life was not so frenetic, she would be home by 5.30 pm and tend to us. We had a nurse maid, called Kaka (or sister) and she would advise Kaka on what to cook for dinner. It would normally be Chinese food.
My grandmother or Por Por also stayed in the bungalow house with us at Adis Road. I will post some photos of that idyllic time where we spent a lot of time playing in the massive garden - rundown by today's standards and we had neighbourhood kids played, and fought with us. There was much less income inequality or the impact of it in the '60s and '70s as compared to today. Nowadays, the difference in living standards here and (especially) in other parts of the world is very wide.
My criticism of today's youth is that they are soft, spoilt (given practically everything they want) and have a very entitled opinion of life compared to when I was young. We have 2 young men in my family, and I have checked with other friends and the verdict is similar.
Back to my Mum, the values she taught me and I am still trying my hardest to uphold are :
a) frugality
b) wisdom
c) financially savviness
d) hard working
e) giving back to society or benevolence
She held the family's finances well and I am profoundly respectful of her financial judgement and acumen. She once famously told me in my face when I was a young sales manager, and was deciding on my first purchase of wheels : "Mark why spend so much on a car ? You are not going to sleep or live in it ? ". The logic in that was startlingly brilliant as many of us today get carried away with chasing the Golden Calf.
She also gave me fantastic advice on our first property in the early 90s as she advised my wife and I about the 3 basic factors to acquiring property ; location, location and location.
She was also frugal, not taking many overseas holidays on her own or with her girlfriends rather she was more interested in helping out close friends who were like her extended family.
While she went on numerous holidays with us in SE Asia as part of the swim team (chaperone) to Manila, Jakarta, KL, Penang and Bangkok in the 70s, after we started out tertiary education, she kindly paid for my brother and myself to enjoy months long holidays during our undergraduate term breaks (1985 (twice) and 87). I had the privilege of taking a Father Mother scholarship paid by my lovely parents to visit USA (5 weeks) in June of 1985, Australia in December 1985 and Europe 1987 April - May. So I had the privilege of visiting the 3 major continents of the developed world even before I started my first real job.
She stayed mainly in Singapore for the most part of 80s till the mid 2000s, I recall she only took a paid company holiday to Sydney / Gold Coast in 1997 and another on the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2003 for 7 days from Hong Kong to Singapore. Hence the picture above was one of the highlights of her overseas travels.
I guess her frugality and humbleness had left us a decent inheritance which I must learn to pass on to the next generation - it is their birthright and entitlement.
Her financial acumen was great, dabbling in investments like stocks and shares, property and foreign property. Totally awesome for a lady with only HSC (Higher Senior Cambridge) or 'A' Levels certifications !
My lovely wife, May in Florence (Dec 2017) -the other wonderful woman
Here's to Anna ; love you and Papa always and will keep the flame burning brightly ever after for you ! Your warm heartedness and kindness will be etched in my memory forever.
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