Tribute to my Mum, Mary Kong Wah Kiew.

Next Sunday will be Mother's day.
Here are nine children my mum produced.
Mum had a difficult time,
Twice she was a grass widow.

Dad went to Singapore and to the UK.
Mum stayed at home to take care of us.
She supplemented Dad's meager income,
She tapped rubber, kept chicken, ducks and even a pig.

She educated both boys and girls,
At a time where Confucian ideas,
deemed that it useless to educate girls.
Bloody useless girls.

Poor mum, just when she was,
about the enjoy the fruits of her hard labour,
It was her fate, to be plucked from us.
We love you and miss you.


(Grass widow, is a woman whose husband had to go away for long business trip or education. In Mum's case, it was years. )