08/03/2021
At last night’s dinner, I was given a card with this question.
I chose to celebrate my maternal grandmother. “PoPo” as we called her in Mandarin, was such a strong woman for her time. And with the full support of her husband, they each took on two jobs to raise SEVEN girls, and offer each their full education. This was quite a feat given that the girls were born before WWII, and girls were not valued in that period amongst Chinese families.
PoPo herself was educated, and by insisting that they too be educated, she raised a teacher, a school principal, Singapore’s first chief magistrate, a lawyer and three doctors.
As a child, I never fully understood how significant she was. And that’s why today, I fully celebrate her as a woman, a mother, and a stereotype breaker of her times. ❤️❤️❤️