23 A grand child's perspective

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When I was young, I didn't converse much with my grandparents. For one, I didn't understand the alien language coming out from their mouths. I preferred to play with my dozen of cousins (and yes it's fun to have a lot of cousins who's your age group haha). Whenever my mum dragged me to them, I would just chat a bit and wander off (yes intentionally, and yes I know I'm a bad kid). And yes even though my parents were busy, I spent the bulk of my childhood with my brother (yes haha no wonder I love him so)

Don't get me wrong, I do have fond memories associated to my grandparents. I've never seen my maternal grandpa since he passed away way before I was born (apparently he was a great man who brought a lot of changes) but I do spend two out of my four school holidays with her.

You see, my grandma owned an orchard. (not the Enid Blyton type! Like those kind of ulu ulu one in the forest type!) It was fun there because its further into the forests from the main village, and that it was guarded by 9 big black dogs. We had to dash all the way into the cottage inside the orchard, also avoiding the durians that might fall onto our heads. We would help her clean up her house (maybe creating more havoc by playing with the water) and water her plants :) she grew tons of vegetables and fruits and it was just a special place that I've yet to find another area that is so unique (yes I haven't been to any other orchards before). Truth to be said, it gets rather boring after a while when you finish all the chores and you can't talk to your grandma due to the language barrier (or maybe just awkwardness) and there's simply no other entertainment. Explains why we would gather up to 4 cousins to go there cause at least we could play monopoly or something haha)

However, despite gotten to know both my paternal grandparents, I actually grew closer to them these few years. My grandpa is a very cute old man haha, like seriously he's very healthy he loves exercising and going to the market.. And he never fails to pat my head and laugh with me when watching random shows. My grandma is partially blind, but since she was my last grandparent (as of now) , taking care of her these few years made me understand more about her past.

It's surprising now that I realize that I used to evade her in the past (I mean there's really nothing to talk about! As a child I probably only know cartoons and grandparents don't talk cartoons.. And TV at all in fact!), but doesn't change the fact that now I still evade her, just a bit lesser because I simply don't have the patience and interest to converse with her (yes I know I'm a loser I still dont know Hakka - there are even two types of Hakka ;_;). However, I remember her telling me about World War II (yeap she's a survivor! And I only knew it recently T~T) and how she would tell me about my dad and our family history. She even sings patriotic songs of how they used to defend the Japanese and send money back to help China. It's like "hey! It's not that bad after all.. This is actually interesting huh!" cause I am deeply interested in History :) But it took me nearly 16 years to get to know this grandma of mine, and now she's probably going to leave me soon..

This cycle of not wanting to communicate with your grandparents.. Is it only me or some of you also experienced it? I really don't know.. It feels like it's also part of growing up, like widening your knowledge and discussion topics to talk to your grandparents and listen about an era that is no longer existent..

When I saw my mother sitting fondly next to her mother accompanying her, I never understood how does she actually have that much patience. Now I know, that how much my mother means to me, and in fact, I choose to believe all of y'all love your mum too! I can't bear the thought that my children will be looking at my mother with a look as if they saw an alien; neither can I accept that my children won't even be given a chance to see my mum..

Nonetheless, I am grateful towards my grandparents. If not for them going through so much hardships for the sake of my parents, I probably won't be here typing all these. All I know is that next time, my mother would be an awesome grandmother, and I actually had the thought of bringing my husband's parents and my parents together so that they can play mahjong together LOL. (But I think my dad might scare them away cause of his quirky habits ohmygee haha) All I hope is that my parents will be healthy and safe, and that they will be able to see their grandchildren (my dad would be elated haha he loves little kids :D and not surprisingly, so do I)

P.S. Grandma's been really critically ill recently, hence the post and random thoughts!