Sister Hong - Loved By All

Now we have arrived back in Melaka, I want to talk for a while about our family here in Malaysia, actually focusing on one family member in particular.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, while in Melaka we are staying in Brother Ming's house, right next door to Sister Hong.  Back in Post 10, Remembering and Night Market I talked a bit about her family as we visited the final resting place of her husband and one of her daughters, Ah Yong.

I found Sister Hong to be an amazing woman, loving and compassionate, always caring for those around her, including yours truly.  She had six children, three boys and three girls, with the two older girls both contracting polio in infancy.  The youngest of the two, Ah Yong, passed away in the spring at age 42.  The older, Ah Kim, is now approaching 50.  Sister Hong has looked after them both, for their entire lives.  Ah Yong was able to be in a wheelchair and thus be to a degree mobile, but not so Ah Kim who has little mobility and is limited to a modified lawn chair during the day.  Pictured is Sister Hong, Ah Kim and Kim.  Ah Kim's joy is her computer and she stays in touch with friends and family via Facebook.

Sister Hong's other daughter currently lives in Ming's house next door with her daughter, while one of her sons, along with his wife (at the time of our visit pregnant with her third child) and two children, resides in Hong's house.  Kim's daughter Cynthia is also a frequent visitor at the house.  Her other two sons visit quite frequently with their families, one living in Melaka and the other in Johor Bahru.  Kim's other daughter Jaclyn, and family, visits when they can from Johor Bahru as well.

Sister Hong is the mainstay of all these family members, functioning as mother, aunt and grandmother, loving them all.  And she checks in with one other, Auntie Ming (Kim and Hong's aunt), who lives in downtown Old Melaka.

Sister Hong's command of English was only slightly better than my command of Mandarin or Malay, however we took to each other immediately and generally had no issue communicating, and she seemed to make sure that I never had a chance to even think of being hungry while in her house.  It was quite delightful.

I wanted to share with you what a great sister she is.

Along with our daughters and grandchildren, Sister Hong is another reason that future trips to Malaysia are not an option, but a requirement.

Okay, back to Malaysian Adventure in the next post.