Mother's Day

I took Mum out to lunch yesterday at the Raffles.

Now that sounds so nice doesn't it? Mum said in her all 64 years she's never been to the Raffles. And she was going on and on about how expensive it was, how she couldn't eat at buffets, not worth it, would never step in here if not for me etc.

But I could tell she was pleased. Underneath all the protests and gruffness, she was happy.

It was a Mother's Day lunch treat for her AND for me as a mother. We feasted on oysters, lobsters, sashimi, lovely goose rillette, beef carpaccio, mussels, crab and so on. It was lovely and nice to enjoy this with mum. We talked about when I was young, we talked about her grandchildren, and all the rest in between. It was a nice long and lazy lunch.

I think about those days when I was young and how I was always dressed in nice clothes, pretty dresses from Metro and Great Wall. I never knew then how poor my mother was. How she would skimp on meals. Or only had 1 dress to her name (the rest were shorts/tees for home and her nurse uniforms) - while I was decked out in so many. The story that sticks with me of course is how she had to pawn her wedding bling to buy milk powder. She had to skimp and to save and worry about money often. She says all that so matter-of-factly. But I never knew, never had the slightest idea that we were not exactly rolling in cash. She never put on a long face, showed any resentment. And while dad was often busy with his bowling or chess or billiards, Mum was always there.

I owe Mum a lot and I can never give back as much as she has given me. Even today she is still giving. This lunch is but a small treat to say thank you. In effect, I know that nothing I do can ever be enough to say thank you. I am happy that she has a pretty good life today - healthy, retired, but still working, still earning a decent salary, travelling widely, reading widely, surrounded by children and grandkids who love her. Her life has been an example to me. I hope one day I can live up to it.