Aunty Yit

There was a time I ate only eggs and not much else and no one could tell me different. I was eight at the time, and I pretty much ruled the world. That was, until I met her.

Aunty Yit was Dad's 2nd wife. She was a beautiful woman, but it was a nasty kind of beautiful. She had a death stare like the worst of them, except hers was accentuated by a pair of tattooed eyebrows - the sort that was perpetually in a state of fury. And, she didn't take shit from bratty little 8-year-olds.

"Eat!" she boomed. My blood curdled as I quickly raised my fork and stuffed a glob of lifeless, overcooked spinach into my mouth. It tastes like shit. Shit, seasoned with the salt from the sweat of my brow. I gave it a couple of feeble chews and gulped my misery down.

"Eat!" It was the very word that would shape my life, and unfortunately my adult body. (Which is overly large, in case you were wondering.) It was the word that heralded the beginning of my relationship with her.

Aunty Yit was toughs as nails, intelligent and funny all at the same time. And she loved children as much as she loved tormenting them. Although I painted her as the embodiment of the wicked stepmother in my childhood, I would learn over time, that she loved me as one of her own. And she loved Mae, Jesse and Maddie too.

Aunty Yit passed away on 6th July 2012. She had lived 65 years but the last six of those she spent battling cancer. She spent the last few months putting her affairs in order and gave us explicit instructions that her funeral arrangement was to be simple, cheerful, and full of eating. Aunty Yit was cremated and laid to rest in the ocean. And immediately after, we ate.

"Eat!" she said, and we did. And with that, Aunty Yit left my life as she came into it.

Footnote: A day after the funeral, we tried explaining to Maddie what had happened to her Grandma. "Do you know where Grandma is?" we asked. "Grandma is sleeping in the oven," she said. Hahaha. If Aunty Yit had lived to hear that, she would have enjoyed it immensely.

The Loss of an iCon

First Apple I ever used was the LCIII way back in 1993. Thereafter, there was a period shortly after when I used legit (and crappy) Apple clones. Of course, those weren't Steve Job's fault since he was absent from the company at the time.

Anyway, 18 years on and having gone through iMacs, iBooks, MacBooks, PowerMacs, an iPhone and an iPad, you kinda feel "invested" into the life and times of Steve Jobs.

So yeah, today Steve Jobs passes on. Looking at that pic from apple.com gives me a weird and unnatural feeling of, quite possibly irrational, loss for someone I didn't even know personally. But if you use a lot of Apple products, you might know what that feels like.

Goodbye Steve.

About Peng

in memoriam: Peng

Two weeks ago, a friend was found dead in her apartment. She was bound and gagged in what the police determined as a robbery, and she asphyxiated on her gag.

I can't say I knew Peng very well, but I knew her enough to feel the grief of her sudden and violent passing. We worked in many projects together in my church's drama production group. She did make-up, while I designed costumes and sets. She knew her stuff, having worked on some real professional productions before. I stuck around the backstage a lot, learning stuff from her - and she would always share.

Peng was a livewire. She was always loud and larger-than-life. And, as many of her friends would attest, she had a heart of gold.

I can't begin to imagine what her last moments would have been like, yet I can't stop thinking about it. Even now. Perhaps because of way she was taken. And perhaps, because you never expect these things to happen to people you know.

I was away in Miri for work when they held her wake. I regret deeply that I was not able to say one last goodbye. But perhaps it was better this way. I would not have been able to handle it very well.

Goodbye Peng. See you again someday on the other side.

Peng's Memorial