do you believe?
Remember when I told you about my aunt coming to visit a couple of weeks ago?
Well, it was pretty fun. Besides getting free AWESOME meals (Joe Forte's, random Italian restaurants and stuff), I got to listen to stories about my family. Although I call her my aunt, she isn't blood related to me.
The story begins with my Dad, his younger brother, and his older sister in Melbourne in the early 1970s. My dad was studying mechanical engineering in Victoria University, my aunt was in med school in Monash, and my uncle was studying chemistry in... Monash as well, I think. So back in the 70s, there were VERY FEW Malaysians in Australia (unlike now, where the entire country is basically overrun by Malaysians and Singaporeans LOL), so all the Malaysians there knew each other and looked out for one another.
That's when they met this aunt of mine. Apparently, the Melbourne years were the GLORY DAYS for them. My aunt told me stories of how they'd go to the country and have house parties (cooking for 40 people and such), and how they'd play mahjong into the wee hours of the night at each other's places and stuff...
It's so odd, you know... Listening to stories about your parents in their heyday. Mostly because it's hard to imagine them ever having been anyone else but Mom and Dad.
Then I asked my aunt about my grandfather (my Dad's dad), simply because he's the only grandparent that I have absolutely no memory of. In fact, the clearest memory I have of him is.... of being at his funeral. Remember how I told you that he's also the only grandparent who was born in China and then sailed to Malaysia with his mom and siblings to escape the war there?
Well apparently, he's EXACTLY like my dad. Haha! How ironic. Down to the extreme stubbornness too! Guess I know where my stubborn gene came from now. Also, he spoke with a thick China-hokkien accent all his life. Don't think I would've been able to understand him even if I got the chance to talk to him!
After that my aunt told me the story of my grandma's passing. She died 3 years ago, but I wasn't there because I'd just come back to Canada and had to attend classes and stuff. I visited her in the hospital before I came back, but at the time everyone was optimistic about her recovery. She had suffered a broken hip sustained from a fall, but you know how when you're old... bad injuries lead to another, and so on?
Nobody had ever bothered to fill me in on the tiny details of her death, but now I know everything. A minute-by-minute account of how it all unfolded. Coupled with lots of supernatural stuff. You know, the god kind. The "there is an afterlife" kind. It's too long a story for me to reiterate, but suffice to say that it made me ponder on life... and the after.
I still find it hard to believe that there is ANYTHING out there. I've always believed it to be wishful thinking. I mean, who wouldn't want to believe in an afterlife? Most of the time I think it's the only way people get through the death of a close one--the belief that they will once again be reunited with them.
I think I might have just turned into an agnostic again... but who knows? We'll never be able to prove conclusively the existence or NON existence of god.
Well, it was pretty fun. Besides getting free AWESOME meals (Joe Forte's, random Italian restaurants and stuff), I got to listen to stories about my family. Although I call her my aunt, she isn't blood related to me.
The story begins with my Dad, his younger brother, and his older sister in Melbourne in the early 1970s. My dad was studying mechanical engineering in Victoria University, my aunt was in med school in Monash, and my uncle was studying chemistry in... Monash as well, I think. So back in the 70s, there were VERY FEW Malaysians in Australia (unlike now, where the entire country is basically overrun by Malaysians and Singaporeans LOL), so all the Malaysians there knew each other and looked out for one another.
That's when they met this aunt of mine. Apparently, the Melbourne years were the GLORY DAYS for them. My aunt told me stories of how they'd go to the country and have house parties (cooking for 40 people and such), and how they'd play mahjong into the wee hours of the night at each other's places and stuff...
It's so odd, you know... Listening to stories about your parents in their heyday. Mostly because it's hard to imagine them ever having been anyone else but Mom and Dad.
Then I asked my aunt about my grandfather (my Dad's dad), simply because he's the only grandparent that I have absolutely no memory of. In fact, the clearest memory I have of him is.... of being at his funeral. Remember how I told you that he's also the only grandparent who was born in China and then sailed to Malaysia with his mom and siblings to escape the war there?
Well apparently, he's EXACTLY like my dad. Haha! How ironic. Down to the extreme stubbornness too! Guess I know where my stubborn gene came from now. Also, he spoke with a thick China-hokkien accent all his life. Don't think I would've been able to understand him even if I got the chance to talk to him!
After that my aunt told me the story of my grandma's passing. She died 3 years ago, but I wasn't there because I'd just come back to Canada and had to attend classes and stuff. I visited her in the hospital before I came back, but at the time everyone was optimistic about her recovery. She had suffered a broken hip sustained from a fall, but you know how when you're old... bad injuries lead to another, and so on?
Nobody had ever bothered to fill me in on the tiny details of her death, but now I know everything. A minute-by-minute account of how it all unfolded. Coupled with lots of supernatural stuff. You know, the god kind. The "there is an afterlife" kind. It's too long a story for me to reiterate, but suffice to say that it made me ponder on life... and the after.
I still find it hard to believe that there is ANYTHING out there. I've always believed it to be wishful thinking. I mean, who wouldn't want to believe in an afterlife? Most of the time I think it's the only way people get through the death of a close one--the belief that they will once again be reunited with them.
I think I might have just turned into an agnostic again... but who knows? We'll never be able to prove conclusively the existence or NON existence of god.