Celebrating Mum's Birthday

Tonight, we were gathered in a restaurant in Batu Pahat to celebrate Mum's birthday. My sister Ping, the best event coordinator in my family, had assigned my third brother Leong to book the table and his wife Li Chia to order the birthday cake. Ping and I had bought for her the blouse she was wearing and a handbag according to her liking.

In my memory, it was the first time we both daughters posed together next to Mum since 2006. Can you imagine that we two had come out from her abdomen many years ago?

Ping had invited her new boyfriend to attend this dinner and he was the one who took this photo of us. With the absence of Dad who is with the Lord, my second brother Kee and his wife Ritsuko who are in the US, and my fourth brother Ah Yu, his wife Emi and their son Yuri who are in Japan, we looked like a rather small family.

We had requested the restaurant to specially prepare poon choi in advance. Many layers of different ingredients were served in a steamed pumpkin.

The most important dish to Mum was of course mee suah (flour vermicelli) which signified long life.

My niece Zer Nin who had cut her birthday cake earlier this month was again in front of another beautiful cake. She wondered why her grandmother, whose age was at least eight times hers, only needed to blow one candle. Ping's explanation was "If all the candles were put, the cake might be burnt!"

A former singing competition champion from Melaka had almost sung a birthday song to Mum on the phone in the afternoon. This evening, our "cast" included a former part-time pub singer in Taiwan who was Leong.

Zer Nin had also thought this dinner would be held at KFC like last time. Mum said to her, "My teeth will not be strong enough to bite fried chicken." I felt like telling Mum, "I know a 85-year-old man in Melaka who would be very excited to have fried chicken for his birthday meal!"

You've got the person, right?