Eulogy

In conjunction with Mama's 100 day death anniversary, I'm posting the eulogy that Sharm and I wrote for her. It was HARD trying to put everything we wanted to say into a 3 minutes speech so.. Bit strange, this, but nevertheless it came from our hearts.

"We're changing day to day.

But tell me, where do the children play?"

-Cat Stevens- Where Do The Children Play?

With the dawn of a new era, we venture through tremendous change and modernization; often leaving the richness of our cultures and traditions behind, passing it off as "old fashioned" and "things only ancient people would do".

However, all of us here today are extremely fortunate to have been able to uphold our traditions and cultures up to this very day. All of this would not be possible without the presence of a very special person in our lives.

On this solemn yet glorious day, a child returns to her Father's arms. Our grandmother, Mary Ong Wat Niyu's time on Earth has passed but her eternal paradise and everlasting peace with her Creator has just begun.

Mary Ong Wat Niyu, or more fondly referred to as "Mama" by her grandchildren, has always been a pillar of strength and a great cook, especially to her greedy, greedy grandchildren.

"What you all want to eat? Mama cook."

From the oldest to the youngest grandchild, she knew the culinary favourites of each one. At every family gathering, she would produce meals fit for a dozen kings. We slowly learnt to expect a constant supply of pong teh, sambal belacan, chap chai and a whole assortment of Nyonya delicacies every time we went to visit her.

Although she nagged at us constantly, she showed her affection in other ways. She strongly disapproved of us going out or mixing too freely with non-relative members of the opposite sex. She always kept newspaper clippings to prove to us the "dangers of the world" and how we would get into deep trouble if we went to mamak stalls. At that time, we thought it was a hindrance to our freedom and just an enforcement of ridiculous values. We did not see how she was actually concerned over the safety of her precious grandchildren.

Needless to say, we got on her nerves plenty of times. As both she and us grew older, it was harder to keep us under control. One particularly stressful time led her to declare that she "would rather look after 10 cows" than 1 of us.

Despite her constant dissatisfaction with the lack of "proper" behaviour, she still found ways to spoil us rotten. Baskin Robbins has profited a lot as a result of her generosity to her grandchildren. So have various street vendors around the world. Her penchant for travelling has brought her to so many exotic destinations around the world, and she never failed to come back with souvenirs for us. We all wear T-shirts of different places, half of which we have never even been to before!

That was the great woman we called Mama. A great source of wisdom as well as a link to our roots. We also have her to thank for our parents, uncle and aunties, and 22 excellent, fabulous, amazing, stunningly attractive...and very humble grandchildren. We will dearly miss the times when we gathered in Malacca to celebrate Chinese New Year. It was her presence that made everything seem so complete.

Thank you Mama for everything you have done and all you have been to us.

Walaupun Mama jauh di mata,tapi dekat di hati.

We love you, Ma.