10 Years and 11 great-grands on

10 years ago today, I rose to go to work as usual. It was just another ordinary day at the office but how the day ended was a different story altogether. For somewhere close to midnight, the house phone rang and it was Mum calling to inform that Gramps have up and left us for a better place.

A man of few words, Gramps was the ever observant one. I would never forget that Christmas of '91 when he opened his house to my friends and the kids from church to party the night away. A stern man, we were all kinda shocked that he had his eyes wide shut to the on-goings of teenagers that night and early morning.

When we were younger, Gramps would take us to the wet markets with him, stopping to buy my fave "baik-chiang-kueh" for breakfast. As we grew older, these drives were replaced with the shuttles to music and tuition classes. He never raised his hand in anger or discipline to any one of us, and for the life of me, I can only recall him intervening on one parental fight in the many years we all lived under one roof.

We were in awe of him for his words of praise were far and few ~ actually I cannot remember any. He was not a man we would trade jokes with. But we knew never to incur his wrath as we learn from experiences of Sunday morning premier league recaps on the telly and when the Thomas Cup games were on ~ "Bloody Bastard" could be heard when the teams he rooted for fell short of his expectations.

My memory of him today is a poignant one ~ Bernie's wedding, the year before he passed. A man who once stood tall (Gramps was close to 6 feet in height!) and proud, looking frail and unsure like a whizen grape in his dinner suit that had become two sizes too big. Dependant on others for moving about, dependant on a blot of cotton so as to not make a mess of himself. But he made it to the wedding of his grand-daughter and we stood just a wee bit taller to help him make up for his loss of height.

10 years has passed but I can still remember him pulling his car out of the drive way, stopping at the gate, rolling down his window and handing me my 50 cents "wage" for holding the gates open.

10 years has passed but I can still remember his tailored-made grey "bermuda" shorts, his "moon-glasses" and his impeccably shined bruges.

10 years has passed and I still hold him to saying "yes" to giving me his battered grey Nissan Datsun when I asked him weeks before his passing, as he laid on his hospital bed.

10 years has passed and not a day goes by that I do not wistfully wonder what he would be like as a great-grandpa to 10 great-grandkids.

10 years has passed and we still miss him dearly, man of few words that he was.

He was one of those individual who needn't say very much ~ you could and would always feel his presence in the room.

Andrew Er Soon Mong
23 November 1916 - 28 April 1999