MY NEIGHBOUR, AH EE

The lovely lady next to me is my neighbour whom I fondly call Ah Ee (aunty in the Hokkien dialect). When we posed for the photos she humbly mentioned that she looked so old and really should not be in the photographs. This is how she is very down-to-earth and genuinely nice.

Ah Ee has had a hard life. She became widowed in her thirties when her husband died from an illness. She had to work as a labourer to raise her two children, a boy and a girl. She told me that as they were very poor, her children had to leave school early to work. However, both of them have made good and are doing fine. So Ah Ee does not need to work anymore.

She is the one helps to water my plants every day and also take in my laundry if it rains. When I am back in Ipoh, she will help look after my house for me and even takes my bills and letters in so that they will not get wet.

She went with me to the nursery yesterday afternoon to buy pots and soil for my new plants. Later she helped me to carry the bags of soil and pots so that I would not strain my arm too much. I feel very fortunate to have such a motherly figure living next to me.