My Grandfather

My grandfather was a great man to me. He was someone I looked up to because he had always something meaningful to share to me whenever I asked him to. He would to tell me his world war two experiences. Like how he used to go underground shelter to hide away from Japanese bombings. He would also tell me what he used to do when he was a kid playing with nature's simplicity, He used to tell me how Malaysia's overgrown plants provided them the fun they needed, since television wasn't invented yet. He used to tell me how he and his friends used to collect fighting spiders, fighting fish, fighting cocks, and challenged each other with other living things that fought. sometimes challenged each other too. My grandfather loved boxing, I would remember him always sitting in his almost ancient-looking brown chair in front of the tv with bits of pipe tobacco all over his shirtless body and all over his brown chair.
My description of him in the last paragraph may have gotten you to think he was a very serious man who always told stories. But no, he is actually a very down-to-earth person. For instance, he would use to go jogging everyday and I would follow him walking all around youth park where monkeys would inhabit the trees in it and often we would stop look at them. He would sometimes tell me with a slight giggle that they are my friends just waiting for me to go play with them for I was once a very mischievous boy, so mischievous till the extend that people would literally call me a monkey. ha ha. Those days!.. And so there were times that I did not go along with him to jog and he would come home with some goreng pisang and with a smile tell me " eh, Just now while I was jogging, one of your monkey friends came up to me and asked me "where is that little boy that follows you often? He looks just like me". And so I would say "Ah Kong...... stop it". and he would laugh and laugh and laugh... I laughed too.. and sometimes I would still wish he is still around for me to be laughed at by him. haha. So and yea. My grandfather was very loving to us. He always made sure we had the best of things. Like getting me a Nintendo because I looked bored in the house, get me goreng pisang, stuff like that. And even though he is gone, I can still never forget his smile and his laughter. My dad and I often share with each other about dreams we would have of him. And they were all mostly happy dreams of him.. I thank God now that he was a man who always made me happy. I am glad to have had an Ah Kong like him. He was a blessing.

James Ooi Soon Kiam
1932-2003