Grandpa stories: SG60 is a good time to recount lives of pioneer citizens

Get students to talk to elderly Singaporeans in their homes or in the community to record and tell their stories.

- Chua Mui Hoong

This is the time of year when I often think of fathers.

My father was born on the 23rd day of the ninth lunar month, which falls this year on Oct 25.

Around his birth date each year, I get into a pensive mood. I may have vivid dreams of childhood, of family, of male authority figures.

A moth, or two, would often find its way into my room around this time, and stay for a few days.

Some say these are spirits of deceased relatives, revisiting you.

I usually do my best to aid the moth as it flits its way out, but sometimes the moth doesn't make it, leaving a feathered corpse for me to sweep up.

This year, I slid a piece of paper under the moth and brought it gently from the bedroom to be released into the garden.

Go in peace.

My father was born in 1921, which would make him 103 if he had lived to today.

He died in 2003, at the age of 82.

He was born in China and left that country in 1949, after China became communist.

He settled in Malaysia for a few years and then came south to Singapore with my mother, just in time for Independence.

They became Singapore citizens and raised three children.

I am telling you the story of my parents.

But it strikes me that the stories of many of Singapore's pioneer citizens are similarly remarkable, and need to be captured before they are lost.

My parents' journey followed the arc of the nation's development.

They were itinerant street hawkers, before settling into a purpose-built hawker centre to sell char kway teow.

They belonged to the first generation of hawkers who enjoyed subsidised stall rental for decades.

I grew up in that hawker centre, which became my before- and after-school care centre.

Long before I went to primary school, I had learnt to wash dishes, serve customers and even do basic maths so I could collect money and give change.