‘If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.’- Barack Obama, 44th US President.
Since today is Mother’s Day and Tuesday will be Teachers’ Day, I have decided to dedicate my column today to a few women who loved me when I was young and made a huge difference in my life.
Mind you, I am a very lucky person. I was much loved by my parents, grandparents, uncles and aunties when I was young.
But for today’s column, I have to be selective. Otherwise, my story will be very long.
On my short list are my maternal grandmother, my mother and two of my secondary school teachers.
I loved my maternal grandmother, who originated from Bintangor and eventually settled down in Kanowit, very much. However, I saw her mostly during the year end school holidays. Sometimes, she would visit my family in Sibu and stay with us for a few days.
I loved the sugar canes and yellow tapioca she grew. As soon as my siblings and I arrived at her home, the freshly harvested sugar canes and piping hot boiled tapioca would be waiting for us at the table.
My grandmother was a good cook and I savoured all the simple food she cooked like her fried tapioca leaves. That is the only dish I learnt to cook from her. Looking back, I wished I had learnt to make some of the delicious cakes that she made.
But grandmother left us too early. She passed away a few years after I began working. I suspect it was from a broken heart. You see, she was very close to my maternal grandfather. She died three months after he died after a long illness.
Because she lived alone, grandmother stopped taking her medicine for high pressure. My aunties only discovered this after she died.
Although she was uneducated, grandmother realised the importance of education and often advised me to study hard. There were days when I had to stay up late to do my homework and there she would be, waiting patiently beside me. That was, if she was in Sibu.
Grandmother was also a skilful craftswoman and could weave lovely mats and hats, too.
If I could turn back the clock, I want to learn how to make some of the delicious cakes that grandmother used to make and relive the joy of being with her again.
Next on my list is my mother who passed away just a few years ago. My mother was a beautiful woman who could speak a few dialects including Foochow, a smattering of Mandarin and English.
Mother was very strict. We were not allowed to go to parties or to have boyfriends when we were still in school. We had to do housework chores after school and during the weekends. No one was allowed to sleep late.
If there were visitors in the house, we had to keep out of their sight and should never, never join their conversations. Those who disobeyed the unspoken rule would be severely caned after the visitors had left.
Mother also stressed the importance of education and being polite to the elderly.
Thanks to her, I grew up to be a very disciplined, hardworking and polite teenager. I spoke only when I was spoken to. I only became talkative after I became a journalist.
The next two persons on my list are my former secondary teachers, Madam Teo and Cikgu Maria Dris, of St Elizabeth’s Convent School (now renamed SMK St Elizabeth) in Sibu.
Madam Teo taught me English in Form Two. Although she was short and small, she had a loud powerful voice.
She gave my classmates and I pages and pages of English grammar to do. Each sentence consisted of a few words and we had to fill in the blanks after that.
I remember cracking my head thinking of the different words to use for the different sentences. I guess practice makes perfect. It was tough initially and after a while, I was surprised I could finish my homework faster than expected.
I met Madam Teo years after leaving school and took the opportunity to thank her profusely for giving me a strong foundation in English grammar in my younger days. I told her she was a good teacher.
Last but not least, it’s time for me to touch on Cikgu Maria Dris. She was a tough English teacher when I was in Form Four and Form Five.
With Maria, you don’t play, play. She had a strict demeanour and piercing eyes.
We had a Preston textbook and she would tell us the chapter we would read the next day.
That night, we had to go through the chapter, look for the meanings of all the difficult words and try to comprehend the story.
Students who failed to give the correct answers to the questions Maria asked in class the next day had to stand up until someone gave the correct answers.
Although Maria was strict, she meant well. She was a good teacher who loved her students. Our class’ English result in the final public examination testified to that.
Although I have not seen her for a long time, I have fond memories of Maria and hope she is doing well.
I wish Maria, Madam Teo, all mothers and teachers a Happy Mother’s Day and Teachers’ Day.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
