My mum

According to her, she ate after the men had.

She has to wake up before the rooster crow.

Cloth has to be washed by hands with washboard before first light.

Water drawn from well must enough for morning use.

Galvanised buckets of water are to send to loteng for use by her mum.

Tepung ubi has to be hot-stirred for starching. Great care to pick fragments of charcoal that will not spark is a fear when ironing.

Breakfast served on tables must be timely. There was no fastfood nor fridge

Girls getting education was rare and she was forbid even to peep through the gap of the loteng windows.

Plane porridge for lunch with pig blood cubes is a common menu.

Unfinished black coffee is a bonus after guest leave.

Every details was vetted before marriage even with match-maker. Everyday was mother's day. She has to wash her mum hair, dry, combed and pinned.

There was no Victoria's Secret nor disposable pad. And it was taboo to dry under-garments in the open.

There was no obstetrician or gynecologist but midwife and amah.

Like her mum who served her granny with filial piety she took her turn yet with great forbearance, each nurture well grooming of her young ones.

When her children grown up, she didn't forbid her daughters-in-law to keep up with times. She could only see her grand children have faith in the joy of celebrating Mothers' Day for her own daughter which she had not.

The hand that rocks cradles rule. There was no Mothers' Day then on Egerton Road, now Bukit Cina Road.

A great mum.