Yet I am not there to celebrate with her as it is a working day... She will be 66 today. What an age to become of.. (I wonder will I ever reach that age or even more?)
Mommy, a near perfectionist she may be... But she has the ability to do something if she puts her heart into it. For example, baking cookies, moon cakes, cooking, gardening, etc.. Not that she is not into baking cakes, but according to her, we are not fond of cakes when we were young. She loves playing badminton too. Not that she is a national player whatsoever... But she did take up some formal lessons to be an umpire and a referee at national level badminton championships. Now, she has to quit playing badminton due to bad knee injuries about 4-5 years back (both knees, mind you)..
Mommy came from a big but poor family. My maternal grandparents were from China, so they had to work real hard to build a family here. She is the 7th child (the 5th girl) in a family of 10 brothers and sisters.. She had to stop schooling at Secondary 1 due to financial restraints. Yet, she somehow manage to find her way around i.e. work and so forth.
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| Mom (far right) with her elder sisters, missing the youngest [circa 1984] |
She used to cycle to work and I would sometimes followed her during my school breaks. She finally managed to get her driving license when I was about Primary 4 or so. So, imagine the struggle she had to go through to keep the family together. I am not sure I will be that strong as she is given those rough periods.
Even though she looked strong on the outside, but yet she is getting weaker on the inside. She has what you called, a pre-leukemia symptom - Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Why, you might asked. She has very low blood platelet counts, worse than any dengue patients known.. Sometimes it would go down to 29,000. There can be no signs of sudden bleeding or bruises out of nowhere. That will be dangerous.. Which is why I always remind her to be very careful when she is in or out of the house. But thank God, it went up to 39,000 the last check up, although it is not the optimal count for a normal person.
Am sorry that we could not be back for your birthday, but here's hoping and praying to mommy that you will live another 30-40 years more to come; that you will soon get back to the best of health doing whatever you wish... May everyday brings you happiness and joy for today and always.. We love you very much, mommy and thank you for everything that you have done in our lives.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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| Our family [circa 2010] |
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