We got a table of 6 in which 4 of them are taken and the other 2 are reserved for my colleagues joining us later... and this elderly ah pei walked over to our table... supporting himself by holding on to the chair...and sat down... all my colleagues were like looking at one another... but none of us have the heart to chase him away you know... i mean he is already having difficulty walking... and you still want to ask him to look for another table in the lunch hour busy Maxwell Centre... very bad right..? So we kept our mouth shut and allowed him to take one of the seats vacant...
And he ordered two bowls of porridge, a piece of fish and beansprouts from the nearly Teochew Porridge stall... and started eating.... I seriously cant help but peek over at him.... he reminded me so much of my Batu Pahat Ah Gong... the way he walked and eat....
He have no teeth to bite his food just like my Ah Gong.. due to old age la... so what they do usually are eat in small mouthfuls and swallow it down together with porridge... i think they chew a little sometimes.. but they cant really take hard foods... and you know.. his hands was trembling you know... becoz they dun really have the strength.. so his hands trembled a little when he picked up the fish and bean sprouts... gosh... my heart really go all out to him.....just like my Ah Gong
My Ah Gong is a very brave man you know.. he suffered from cancer.. even a blood clot in his brain and went through an operation to remove that.. but he survived... so I am very proud of him... but dun be fooled by his strong appearance... underneath I know he actually cares for all of us alot... Since young... he always encouraged me to do what I want... when I went overseas to study.. he even volunteered to give me some money from his hard earned savings so I could have a better life overseas... so yeh i really like my Ah Gong alot... I am much closer to him than with my Ah Ma.. whenever I didnt go back to visit him, he will ask why... sometimes when I went back out of the blue alone, he will ask me how come i didnt go work, run to Batu Pahat to visit him........
