Missing a person is a continuous tense. You miss her all the time, most of the time and somehow it is impossible to forget her. This will be the first Christmas without mum. We could almost feel that she is still around, giving suggestions and ideas on menu and gifts. We feel that she is part of us, among us. Just that she is invisible to our eyes but we all can feel her in our heart.
I will miss mum for every festive seasons. She is the anchor for festival celebrations for our families. In fact, she used to be the life of the family parties in that she planned, financed, shopped, cooked, entertained and made sure all were included and had a good time. Her menu was a long list. She could cook up a storm in no time. Sometimes she enlisted my Aunt Tsin to help and most of the time, she cooked alone. There was a period, dad would cook his famous Beef Rendang dish, the award winning dish, famous among the BCCM KK congregations !
Even when she was ill and unwell, she remembered to remind us to celebrate. Even when she could not eat much, she still wanted us to have certain food ready. It is difficult to grow up not liking food in my household. It is hard not to be hospitable when you have been trained by your own mum to show endless hospitality. She is almost like a goddess of hospitality. She never thought about her living room as too small to entertain certain number of guests, she could count on overflow to the car porch. She never thought of protocol and what happened when a VVIP showed up and we did not have a proper sofa seat for him or her. She never really worried about the food was not good enough for certain VVIP guests. To her, she entertained from her heart, her passion and her best.
So, this is the first Christmas without mum, there is a sense of soberness in the air. In honour of her, I have asked my kids to tone down our Christmas decorations in our home. We picked White as our theme and we tried not to put up too many. The results was great. We all like it. Simple and White. Not too elaborate.
I remember the cakes she would ask me to prepare so that she could give them to her friends, nurses and doctors who looked after her. She even suggested to pay me for those gifts and I would declined as it is only right to bless those who have blessed her so much.
And so, mum's Christmas Legacy and Traditions linger on in our family, to us as Children, we miss after celebrating Christmas with her for the past 40 plus years. For dad, it is a void that nothing can fill as he missed her after 51 years of Christmas celebrations. For a memory like this, I will drink to it. Cheers, mum, we all love you very much. You are just part of us. Your legacy will live on within us.
Christmas 2015
~ 525 Words
