Remembering the Iron Lady
Tai-Ma is gone. At a ripe old age of 93. It has been a long wait for her. She had been waiting for this day, had been wishing for this day to come quick. Her last days (3 to be exact) were spent in the hospital due to acute stroke & heart attack & lung infection, and was in unconsciousness. All was glad that she wasn't in much stress or immense discomfort, at least not visibly.
Tai-Ma was a strong-willed and tough old lady. Despite her difficulty in moving about, she had insisted on doing as much as she could for herself. Up till the last day of her consciousness. She bathed & clothed herself. She boiled water daily for her own consumption. She cleaned up her own room (which is the tidiest room I ever seen). She washed her own clothes & bedsheets. She fed herself and washed her own utensils. She even did simple sewing to mend her tattered clothing (no joke, really. I had to help her thread her needles though). Yes, she was one amazing old lady!
It is a pity that we don't know much about Tai-Ma's younger days, about her times through World War 2. Not that we did not ask her, not that her mental capacity was poor (she was the sharpest old lady I ever known), it was just that for whatever reasons there were she didn't want to share. Whatever we know of her younger days were hearsays.
An "ancient" documentation found amongst her belongings.
Regardless of how she was in her younger days, from the day I first got to know her, she had been an exemplary person. And I do wish I'll be able to conduct myself the way she did, through the difficulties and adversities.