Instalment 3 of 4...
There’s a memory I have… not exactly about food, but about medicine. You know how medication instructions normally go – Please take 3 hourly. Or 4 hourly. Usually when we see this, we just take them 3 times a day after meals, right? Think now they write "Three times a day" - perhaps they changed the way it is being worded, but I recall clearly stated to be taken 3 hourly or something like that.
Coz, Gong Gong and Po Po took it literally! They would make me take my medicine every 3 hourly, on the dot, just as was instructed. So much so that they would wake up in the middle of the night (think 3 am) and wake me up, in order to give me my medicine.
I remember this clearly coz I have this mental image of being waken up in the middle of the night. We'd be sleeping in the living room, on the floor, on those chao chiok (straw mats). Then an alarm clock will go off, and Gong Gong and Po Po would wake, switch on the light, and Po Po would wake me while Gong Gong gets the medicine. They'd feed me the medication, and Gong Gong would reset the alarm clock for another 3 hours, before they switch off the lights, and we all go back to sleep.
Looking back, it was kinda hilarious how they took the instructions literally, but I always thought how this showed that they really loved and cared for me. To sacrifice their sleep and wake up in the middle of the night just to make me take my medication, instead of taking the easy way out and just feeding to me when I wake up.
I think this is incredibly sweet. I do recall now that they are indeed marked 3 or 4 hourly. For a moment when I first read it, I thought they gave you 3 or 4 pills every hour, and thankfully, after reading the full story, realised my mistake. Very relieved to know.
ReplyDeleteThey were indeed wonderful grandparents. After reading some of the stories, I have a sense that life was so hard during their younger days with so many children that it was difficult for them to spend quality time with their own children.
They made up for "lost time" with us and though I can't remember too many of my own days with them, there are sweet memories that I will share later.
Thank you for sharing.
I told Auntie Constance about this 3 hourly medications story. She added that when she was sick and coughed badly at night, she would usually be too lazy to wake up and take cough mixture. Gong Gong would wake up and bring the cough mixture to her.
ReplyDeleteWhen she had fever, Gong Gong would feel her in the middle of night and tell Po Po her fever had subsided.
That's how caring they are.
woan min