A story to tell, a favor to ask

When I see my grandparents, I see a part of my history. When you are young, you think they will live forever. And because my family has as much drama as a TVB drama... I, and I can see that my other cousins as well, were brought up in a way that we hated our family gatherings. Going to the grandparents house for a visit seemed such a chore.


Due to further family problems, I stopped seeing them for years. I stopped seeing anyone considered family. If I do not see family, I can forget about all the boogie monsters from the past.

After a great struggle and persuasion from my relatives from my mum's side who hunted me down and refused to let me distance myself from them, I agreed to visit my paternal grandparents again. Only this time, I went on my own free will with the hubby. No longer being dragged by my dad.

This past 2 years, through my hubby, I've gotten to know my grandparents. My grandparents can only speak Cantonese, which I can't. So hubby speaks to them instead. The hubby has a way of being extra charming to grannies, he just needs to give them his specialized granny award winning smile and the grannies love him.

Needless to say, my grandma ADORES him. The two will sit down and chat for an hour like old friends. She tells the hubby lots of stories, stories of when she was young girl and how her marriage was arranged with my grandpa, stories of the Japanese occupation, stories of all my other relatives who are practically strangers to me.

I suddenly realized that the grandparents are part of my history. They are part of who I am today. I'm extremely disappointment with my parents for everything that happened and I'm glad that I made the decision to reconnect with my grandparents again.

My grandparents are old. They can no longer go out. They no longer care about all the mistakes of the past. All they want is for their family to drop by to see them once in a while. To me, it's just one hour out of a busy day, which I admit that sometimes I postpone week to week. To them, it's the highlight of the whole week. They now spend their life waiting for somebody to drop by for a visit, waiting for the doorbell to ring.

I hardly ask for favors. At least I try not to. When I had my surgery, I insisted that I could drive to the hospital myself to have the surgery stitches taken out. That was a very bad idea. The next time you see a car crawling on the road, take pity because it might a poor girl on her way to get her stitches out.

Today I need to ask for a favor. My grandpa is in the ICU. He needs blood. If you can donate, I will be very grateful. If you can't, it's okay... no obligations.


I've been visiting my grandpa these past few days. For him, it's a fight to see the next morning sun. For me, it could be the last time I see him. That my goodbye to him may be the last.

We all grow old. But we always deny it. We think we have all the time in the world. We take the next day, month, year for granted. But one day time runs out. Then comes the desperation to hang on just to see one more day.

I sense that desperation around me whenever I enter the ICU to see my grandpa. I see that desperation in my grandpa's eyes every time I look at him. When I see how hard he has to fight just to see tomorrow, I feel like it's a sin for me to carelessly take tomorrow for granted.

If I lose my grandpa, I feel like I'll lose part of my roots. I've only begun to get to know my grandparents. To get to know a part of my history. And they still has plenty of stories to tell, stories that I want to hear.

If you can donate blood to my grandpa, the details are as the following. Any blood type will do.

Loo Yok Choon, 0041977
Adventist Hospital


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