My grandfather...

"Don't be sad. Have an ice-cream on me. Now study hard and be good." Those were the words of Mr. Chai H.C., an ice-cream seller and most important of all, my grandfather. Those days, ice-cream sellers usually rode bicycle and that was what he did. To support the family, this man rode miles and miles even as far as Paya Rumput in Alor Gajah to ply his trade. There were times when it was raining and there would be plentiful of unsold ice-cream but he was never sad nor stingy. He is always very cheery, positive and a big-hearted man. He would treat us ( my siblings and I together with my uncles and aunties) with great Magnolia and Walls ice-cream. No matter whether it was rain or shine, we would get our treat of ice-cream at the end of the day. He is a great grandfather. He hardly complained and he persevered a lot. With his old trusty bicycle and a big squarish metal tong of ice-cream, he would cycle from one corner of the town to another. He was not only hardworking but enterprising as well. He would sell bread sandwiched with ice-cream and even sold those wafer cone ones. Every sen he earned went into household expenses and sending my uncles and aunt to further education. It was hardwork but a decent living those days. He slogged day and night while he was easily asleep by night and an early riser the following morning. On a good day, he would make 3 trips to the shop to replenish his ice-cream stocks while making sure we have our ice-cream treat. I hardly see him lose his temper but when he is angry , he would just go to a corner and cool down. He never took things at heart but he is always telling us all to study hard. Even when I was in my darkest hours in life, he was there to support me by giving me words of encouragement and good sound advice. A man of few words but very choiced words. He doesn't mince his words when he advises and never with a grudge. He is a man who would not complain of his pains ( physically or mentally ) but he would rather suck it all in. 

I remembered the day my mom called me and told me grandpa met with an accident. I quickly drove over to the house. I took one look at him and I told him I have to take him to a hospital. He insisted on GH while I wanted to send him to a private hospital. He said firmly to me, "No, Ah Pok. Send me to the GH. I will be alright." With bloodied side of the head and an equally red Picasso blood patterns on the shirt, I was sure he was not okay and so, I insisted that he did a complete scan at the hospital. After much talking to the doctor and so on, he finally went through the scan and all the other tests. It took a long time but I am glad he got it done. Thank God, he was okay and he never ceased to thank me for it. My brother,mom and I then took him home while mom took care of him. We then insisted that he comes over to my mom's place for dinners so that we could take care of him. Anyway, he insisted that he was used to fending for himself after the death of my grandma. He would join my mom and brother for meals occasionally while mom would go over every morning to check on him until that fateful morning when he had a stroke and fell down.This accident happened to an 85 year old man who does tai-chi exercises every morning and I was stumped! I was in Penang with the family at that time and I was gutted when I came to know about this.

When my family and I went to see him in the hospital, it broke my heart to see my grandfather lying on the bed in the ICU unit. I held his hands and I prayed for him. In the next few days, SLing and SYuen continually prayed for him. I knew he wanted to speak to me but he was just too drowsy, I guess. He was having difficulties in breathing and it was heart -wrenching seeing my grandfather lying there. I may be deemed as a "no expression" man at times but deep down in my heart, I wept for this man for he has a great & amplified big heart and I love him for it. He was my grandfather and a great one indeed.

He breathed his last gasp of air at about 3.00am on Tuesday, 14th June, 2011. I will miss him and I will miss the mangoes he kept for my family whenever the mango tree in front of his house had a bountiful harvest. That is the bigness of his heart - truly a grandfather right to the end!~

I will miss him ; I truly will miss him!~