My mother is 80 years old

Recently we made the trip back to Penang for CNY and had a very expensive reunion dinner with Tim's family. Last year our share was about RM250. This year the whole table was RM1k! Wah liao...chiak beh liao...bankrupt liao....!!

Well on another note....I checked my mother's IC and I realize that she is 80 years old! Birthdate: 25 November 1933 (born before the world wars).

No wonder her memory seems to be failing her. She keeps repeating things over and over again. And I realized that the thing that matters most to her now is that we give her the monthly allowance to keep her going. I was just thinking to myself 'how come all that seems to matter to my mother is money...." 

She says she is very 'kek sim' (hock kien for excessive worrying) when my sister's cheque got delayed in the mail. Well....blame Pos Malaysia. Ching's cheque finally came - one month late!

She lives for her plants, going to the temple, going to the market, meeting her friends, going to the shops to buy her monthly sanitary staff and her medication, going to pay her utilities and the visits that we make to Penang.

However I thank God that my mum is still relatively healthy save for being a little hard of hearing and arthritis in the knees. She is careful with her diet as she is diabetic. However she loves black coffee which she will take at least twice a day. 

Adeline says it is not good for her to drink black coffee (or eat roti chanai which seems to be her favorite breakfast) but I said to let her eat and drink what she wants as she is already in the last days of her life. Let her enjoy her life and there is no point to stop her from doing what she wants.....

These days the driver, Arul takes her around to all her favorite haunts in Penang. Vernie (Suan's maid) also comes on and off to clean the house and take her blood sugar/blood pressure. Thank God for Vernie. Bless her heart as she loves my mother....

3 of us continue to support her financially assuring her that we will see to her monthly financial needs for her continued comfort as long as she lived. For this year, I have upped her monthly allowance up to 3 times the usual amount I give her making the amount more than RM1k. 

It can be stressful @ times but I must learn to give thanks. It is always more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). When I am short of money and often I turn to Tim who has become my friendly money lender (he loans me money to use until my next pay cheque or bonus).

We have decided that a driver is the best option for now as she has refused to have a maid in the house (language problem).

Mum is also scared of maids (horror stories of maids bullying old folks) as she says that they tend to be constantly on the smart phone rather than doing housework. From my experience, they do become phone-addicts after 3 years working with you because of family-familiarity! I had 2 Filipino maids before. Whenever I was on leave, I became their telephone receptionist on the house phone. Those days hand phones were not available......

I continue to pray for my mother's good health and that there will be no need for us to put her in a retirement home. It is better for her to stay in her familiar environment, a place she has called home after my father's death. Tim used to say that if we take old people out of their familiar environment they will die faster...

O yes one more thing, my mother keeps on repeating things. I guess she needs to keep on reminding herself of things to avoid memory loss....

I hope my children will take care of me and Tim when we grow old into our 70s and 80s like the way we take care of our mother.