Filial Peity

19 September 2006, Tuesday

It has been many moons since I last visited my paternal grandmother; my last visit was probably when I was pregnant in my last trimester. Even then, it was only a quick half hour squeezed in between busy errands, our focus then was on getting all our "kar chang" (barang- barang) ready for our baby.

And yet, during my confinement, my grandma took the effort to come visit me and her great grandson – her first by the way; bringing along with her 3 pairs of cotton pajamas she had sewn and kept for me for the longest time that she can remember. Along with it she packed a home-made cotton patchwork blanket for little Aiden.

You see, she is already 80 years old and can barely walk without the assistance of either a cane or her wheelchair. She can hardly hold a conversation long enough to remember what she was talking about a mere 5 minutes ago.

So we took some time to visit her last Sunday bringing along little Aiden to visit. All in good time, Aiden woke up just before reaching her apartment, so he was in a happy mood. My grandma was really excited to see him, you could tell as she left the apartment door wide open waiting in anticipation. She spent most of our visit time talking and playing with him comparing him to when I was a little girl. She even made my uncle dig up photos of me when I was a young girl. When it was time to go, she wheeled herself right up to the apartment door to wave goodbye, sad to see us go.

I was born in Penang and during my early years in life, I was brought up by my grandma (my parents both worked in KL). They would both travel to Penang every Friday/Sat morning to visit me and back to KL on Sunday. You can imagine how tiring that must be without the North-South highway then. When my parents took me back to KL, I would visit my grandparents every opportunity that I could during my school holidays. They in turn will come to KL to stay during the school term.

Years passed and I grew up. Soon there were other more important things in my life (or so I thought). College, friends, dating, university and before I knew it, I became a wife and mother. And all this time my grandma continued to grow old, lost her life long partner to stroke and yet would constantly ask about my well-being through my parents or via a phone call or two to me.

So, it was during a moment in time feeding little Aiden when I realized that I have taken her for granted and it's about time I show more love and care for my grandma while she is still around.