My family story#2 - My mother Part 3

Amongst my siblings, I lived with my mom the longest since I was the youngest child. Even when I began to work in Kuala Lumpur in 1983, I was the one who was the most regular to go back to Taiping to visit her.  My father had passed away in 1976, just a month after his 60th birthday. I was 15 years old , then. The death of my father was hard for my mother to take. Suddenly, the man that she loved and depended upon had gone. She cried a lot for several days after my father had died. During this time, I was the one still living with mom at the Asamkumbang house. All my elder siblings were either already married or working. Most were in KL and one sister in Sungai Petani, Kedah.
So, I became "man of the house" but being the youngest boy, my mom treated me like a little boy usually.

My mom did not suffer any financial troubles because she inherited my dad's pension. My monthly duty was to pay all the bills at the several government departments. Those days, all utilities were operated by government departments and central bill payment system was not invented yet. Water bill at JKR office, electricity bill at LLN (Lembaga Letrik Negara) and telephone bills at the Jabatan Telekom office. Then, there was the Cukai Tanah at the Pejabat Daerah Larut And Matang and the Cukai Pintu at the Majlis Bandaran Taiping. Usually, I would go to pay these bills on Saturday. Those days, all offices were open half-day on Saturdays. Yes, I rode the bicycle to town for all these errands. So, after errands completed, I would go to treat myself at the ice-kacang stall at Asamkumbang. Cannot spend to much time in town either or my mom will get worried. Those days once you were out of the house, you were not contactable. No mobile phones.

So, how did we do our shopping? Daily foodstuff (fish, meat, vegetables) was obtained from the local shop ran by Ah Leng. When Ah Leng closed shop, this was later supplied by one Ah Guan.

For heavier stuff like rice, chicken feed, we  would asked an uncle of mine (Ayah Long Darus) to drive my old dad's car (Fiat 124ST) to town. I was only 16 years old, then. In 1977, you must be 18 to get a driver's licence. Sometimes, I would have cycled to town for any stuff  that my mom required.

To overcome her loneliness, my mom turned to her hobbies. Her favourite passtime was attending to her plants and flowers. She attended to her garden with much loving care. Sometimes I felt that she loved her plants and flowers more than she loved me. Anyway, she recovered quite well, together with support from her close friends, like Mrs Chin and Mrs Pillay (all widowers).

From plants and orchids, we added rearing chickens, duck and guinea fowl. Those times, we had help from a weekly gardener and a stay-home maid (kampong girls of those times were willing to be maids before flocking to factories for work).
We even had our own vegetable patch.