This is my maternal grandfather. He died on 13.1.2002. During his funeral mass, Amazing Grace was sung. It was a sad occasion, everyone crying and my mother was so sad. This song was sung but it was just a nice and beautiful song at that time. But it is a meaningful and relevant song to me after Jesus came, on 8th March 2008 (God and Jesus came...). Some months ago (in 14 August 2017), I dreamt of my grandfather. In the dream, he told me his name was Joseph Lee. I woke up to check if his name and surname was really Joseph Lee. Indeed it was. I never know he was named Joseph.
My grandfather and grandmother were siblings. He loved to play mahjong with my mum. He worked as a sugar cane delivery man, delivered sugar cane to drink stalls. My second aunt used to be working in the drink stall with her husband. My parents and I went usually visited them at the stall. Sometimes over there I would see my grandfather.
I went to the hospital with my sister to see my grandfather before he died. At that time I was still separated with Richard. It was somewhere around May 2002 that he came back to the family. His sudden returned disrupted my life then. However I still welcomed him because the children will have a complete home...
Photographs showing the grave of my grandmother, Lee Miou Inn
My grandmother died on 23 March 1988. Her grave is at Lim Chu Kang cemetery. I did not take these photograph, but it was shared in the Lim cousin's whatsapp group. I had taken her grave's photograph, but I can't remember when was that. She was just 68 years old when she died.
Grandmother was a smoker. She would come to our house to sit on the chair and smoke. But the first thing when she arrived at our house was to wash her feet and wash her hands. I wonder if she had OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). She had the habit of always washing her hands and feet. Sitting on the sofa, she would ask my sister to cut her fingernails.
Normally she would come to our house after church on Sunday. She would knock so loudly at our door. Most of the time, in her hands were some leaves (a kind of Aloe Vera). She would ask my mother to boil for her to drink. She also loved to drink the chinese medicine, Five Pagoda Powder.
After her death, the funeral over, our house was filled with big Moths (Black and white colour). There were so many so many moths, it was so amazing. So whenever I saw that kind of moths it would remind me of my grandmother.
Every time when I mention about Holy Communion, I would remember my paternal grandmother. She is sitting with my grandfather in the photograph above. What is Holy Communion?
Photograph of me receiving Jesus the first time, My First Holy Communion
Even though I was taught about this Holy Communion in Catechism:
On the night He was betrayed, Jesus took bread and gave it to His disciples, and said, "Take this, all of you, and eat it: This is My Body which will be given up for you."
When supper was ended, He took the cup. Again He gave thanks and praise, gave the cup to His disciples, and said, "Take this, all of you, and drink from it: this is the cup of My Blood, the Blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of Me."
I was not aware that I was receiving Jesus at that time. It was just bread I received in my mouth then. It got soften with saliva and I just swallowed it. After that, I went to the pew to pray. So every time we go church, this is the main thing that we do, the reason why we go church.
Our Lord changed bread and wine into His Body and Blood and offered Himself to God. This was a sacrifice. This was His Body to be offered on the Cross. This was His Blood to be shed for the forgiveness of sins. He told the Apostles that He would die on the next day. That would be the bloody sacrifice on the Cross.
But Jesus wanted this unbloody sacrifice to continue on earth till the end of time. When He told the Apostles to do as He had done, He made them priests and gave them power to offer this sacrifice.
So when I was young, I often saw my grandmother asking the priest to give her Holy Communion, whether it was mass time or outside mass timing. She always liked to come to our house, wearing slippers and she would always washed her feet in our toilet. The next thing that she like would be washing her hands too.
I was told that my grandmother passed away peacefully 'in her sleep' in the year 1988. Look at the family photograph above. The years have passed. Four people were not here anymore. They were my grandparents, my father and my third maternal uncle. And I was 'dead' and was 'raised' again...
When I was young, I wanted to keep chicken so much. I cried and my mother bought them for me in the end. I care for the chicken totally by myself -- putting them in boxes, lining the boxes with newspaper, changing them as and when dirty, giving them food and playing with them. I had tortoises, which my mother helped to feed and change the water.
In my home, the tortoises or terrapins belong to Isaac. I did not do anything for him. I left everything for him to do. He followed the instructions given by the shopkeeper, putting the water level at its minimum at the fourth staircase of the tank. It was so little and the tortoise was not able to swim. I remembered mine was submerged in water and the tortoise was able to swim. Mine grew so big and ate a lot of food. My mum helped to feed it with live prawns (cut into small pieces) and they love it. Sometimes the terrapins will eat kang kong (vegetable) as well. In my preschool, they feed the terrapin cabbage at times.
For a about a week the terrapins live in shallow water until one day Clara helped to put in seashells and a big rock and asked Isaac to put in more water. They changed the water on that day. The shopkeeper suggested to change the water every 2 days. However we see that the water was not dirty at all. So the water was changed about a week ago. Now that the water level was higher now, the terrapins are able to swim in it.
The children were scared that the terrapins will get drown. They even searched for answers on the web. But based on my experience, my terrapins were covered with water, so high. They were placed in a round basin at that time, something that the house has and we did not even go to the pet shop to buy. It was a very big basin and the water level was very high so that the tortoise can swim. So the tortoise did not drown!
As seen in the photograph below, you can see a rock. The children placed a big rock in the water and the tortoise was able to swim, and able to rest on the rock too.
Photograph to show the water level that is covering the terrapins
As for food, buy the XO Turtle Sticks as shown below:
Photograph showing XO Turtle food sticks for the terrapins to eat
One last thing, remember to add in Ammonia Detox for the water. Follow instructions on the bottle -- mix a drop of Ammonia Detox to one litre of water.
