After dad had passed on, mum started to meet and make some new friends in the neighbourhood. When dad was around, mum's full attention was on him. She did not have her own personal friends.
Mum's new friends were generally impressed with mum's decorum and wisdom. Mum conducted herself head and shoulder above her pack, she was the wise one without being the leader. Her friends had all looked to her whenever they needed advice.
One day one of mum's friends remarked to her, "You must have had great parents who taught, educated and brought you up well". The friend was surprised when Mum replied she was not brought up by her parents. Indeed, mum's mum my grandma had died when mum was still little. Grandpa worked as a petty trader on board the train. Mum was given away to a family, to work as a child maid in exchange for food and shelter.
Mum's adopted family did not allow her to go to school, despite mum's many pleadings. She learned to speak, read and write Chinese, undoubtedly an extremely hard to learn language, by herself without a teacher.
Mum was made tough, wise and capable from a difficult early life. She was schooled in the real world college, and she learned through observations of actions and outcomes. She was able to connect the dots. Her cousins said that mum would have been a great lawyer if ever she was given the opportunity to receive proper education.
The first thing that mum's friends had in mind, when they observed her great decorum and wisdom, was that she must have great parents who brought her up well. This is a common conclusion by most people in similar situation.
If you are good, your parents get the credit. Conversely, if you are not good, your parents would have been blamed for not teaching you properly.
I hope that whatever I do, I will not sully the good names of my great parents.
No comments:
Post a Comment