I shall start from the eldest. My grandmother was born in China and poverty forced her to seek a better life in Nanyang (South Sea) together with her husband.

She had four children, two settling in Malaya and one each in Hong Kong and China. Like many in her generation, she tapped rubber and panned tin.

Many years later, she took out her life savings to help my mother buy her first house in Pandamaran, so that we could move away from the one-bedroom teachers’ quarters behind a school.

It was a row of wooden houses with attap roof and that was where I grew up and studied until Standard Six. I was brought up by my grandmother while my mother was busy teaching.

I was my grandmother’s pet but did not do enough for her, although she lived up to 85. She enjoyed inhaling steam from hot rice and I have the same Hakka trait for hot food, as our ancestors originated from cold northern China.

My mother had great tenacity. She chose to pursue what many would not even try. She wanted to become a teacher but did not have Standard Six qualification, which was the minimum required after the Second World War.

She forged the certificate and went on to become one of the finest Chinese school teachers in our country until retirement. In 1950, both my parents were teachers in a Mentakab school and I was born in the teachers’ quarters behind the school.

Later, my mother was transferred to teach in Pulau Ketam and commuted by ferry daily, before she was permanently based in Pandamaran. She taught herself to sing and play the piano, and taught music in school. Upon retirement, she coached senior citizens in Klang to sing. She also took part in singing contests and won trophies too numerous to mention.

Thanks to her eldest daughter who carved a successful career, she has travelled the world and probably ticked off all the items on her bucket list before she passed away at the ripe old age of 89.

All my three sisters are younger than me. The eldest failed her Higher School Certificate exam the first time but succeeded at the next try and went on to study at Universiti Sains Malaysia when the university was still new. She did well to earn a bursary.

After a short stint with a government agency, she worked for a tobacco company in marketing, under a visionary boss. Later, they both left to set up a company to do marketing commercials for TV2, and gave TV3 a run for its money.

In the early 1990s, the boss embarked on a mammoth project to build a new port in Port Klang, which was opened in 1996 and the rest is history. She spends time shuttling between her Petaling Jaya house and Sydney apartment, where her son and daughter-in-law are.

She is the benefactor for the family and had been very generous to all her siblings, and active in charity work and noble causes.

My second younger sister was top in class 17 times in her primary school when there were three terms in a year. She came in second at the last exam and was devastated. She did not do as well in secondary school.

Her first job was at an electronic factory in Sungei Way before father introduced her to work at the Klang Town Council, where she served until retirement, and where she was retained a few more years under contract.

When she was handling licences, she was very popular with the shopkeepers and hawkers, as she issued or renewed licences promptly without unnecessary delay.

Following in her mother’s footsteps

My youngest sister decided to follow in the footstep of our mother by becoming a teacher. So after schooling, she applied for and was accepted for training by the government.

As usual, her first posting was at the most rural place, deep into the hinterland of Terengganu, where she served for several years.

Later, she took up the opportunity to earn a university degree and is now teaching secondary school students. But teaching is no longer fun, given the students of today, particularly in government schools. So she had to soldier on.

My wife studied up to Form Three, with the first six years in a Chinese school, but she could speak English, Malay and Mandarin better than most Malaysians. Thanks to her, we have two lovely daughters, whom we gave them the liberty to pursue their interest or career.

When I failed in my business venture in 2000 and had to drive taxis, she did not utter a word of grumble. In the 1990s, I served as general manager in four successive companies with an income and lifestyle to match.

On Feb 2, a car rolled over my feet and I was on medical leave until March 31. Instead of dining out regularly, she had to wait on me hand and foot, fearing I might trip while using a pair of crutches in the house.

She was afraid that I might sink into depression for being confined to home for such a long period, but my spirit was free. She is probably the greatest grandmother any child can have, doting over our granddaughter and providing her everything she needed.

Our granddaughter grew up never short of love, care and attention, and has built up a huge reservoir of love and confidence, always making eye contacts with adults, especially at hotels and airports. My daughter travelled regularly on business, always bringing along my wife to look after the baby.

My elder daughter was better in sports than studies and was the Sports Girl of the Year in her school and sergeant of the police cadets. After schooling, she worked in a boutique before deciding to continue her studies.

She took up business administration and emerged as the top student in her college at Kuala Lumpur, and was offered a job to teach foundation studies in a college at Klang, driving all the way from Ampang, while pursuing a degree.

She was enrolled for a twinning programme at a university in Damansara and her marketing degree helped her to secure the first job with an advertising agency, where she burned the midnight oil.

She later joined one of the global advertising agencies before being offered a position as brand manager for a world-renowned ice cream brand. Her performance caught the eye of the group’s chairperson and she was promoted to media manager for Malaysia and Singapore.

In Malaysia, the group was one of the biggest advertisers and she served as deputy president of the Malaysian Advertisers Association and chairperson of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. But she gave all these up for the future of her daughter, and emigrated to Australia.

While my elder daughter took up karate after finishing school and went on to obtain her black belt, my younger daughter took up ballet.

After her diploma studies, she worked as a full-time translator in a market research company for 10 years. During this period, she was a part-time dancer, and often performed at Istana Budaya and the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre.

Later, she became a full-time dancer and part-time translator. She performed in musicals for several troupes, and had toured South Africa, Singapore, Jakarta, Perth, Taipei, Xian and Beijing.

A princess in my eyes

The last is my granddaughter. She is not yet a woman but a princess in my eyes. As a baby, she observed keenly but would not speak a work until she was two years old. But before she could speak, she shocked us by giving a lengthy and fiery speech that sounded like some Indo-Chinese language, perhaps reliving her past life.

When we tried teaching her, she would not repeat the words but she was learning from watching television, as education programmes were switched on most of the time. When she started speaking, she spoke English in complete sentences and pronounced the words distinctly.

She has great motor skills, could put adults to shame with her dancing and loves to draw caricatures. She is creative and says she has decided to be a fashion designer. She is now eight years old and representing her Sydney school in swimming.

We are happy she is receiving quality education, and away from the dengue and haze. She would contribute immensely to Australia in sports, business, art and humanities.

Her mother went to Australia without a job. But thanks to her qualities and credentials, she was offered a post as planning director for Australia by a global communications planning and media buying network.