My change of fate

I was fourteen years old when it happened: My father died in a road accident. My mother, working as a secretary, managed with help from her parents to raise three boys and two girls. I am the eldest in the family.I was in Secondary two at the time, my sister Jo is one year younger than I. My other two brothers were nine and six and my other sister was three. My mother’s salary was barely enough to maintain a large family like ours.Cutting down on outings and on treats like birthdays and sweets helped the family to survive. We had to make a lot of sacrifices and made do without simple luxuries like movies and picnics.

Then came the second blow: My mother developed cancer last year and had to stop work. I was in secondary three and my sister was in secondary two.The older children had to take on part time jobs to run the family. We nearly had to stop school. It was a difficult time for my family and me. My sister got a job at McDonalds’s while I gave tuition all day at home. My younger brother, Harold helped in the coffee shop below our block after school. With three of us working we could just make ends meet. For the time being, my mother’s CPF took care of repayment of our flat. The mortgage was for twenty years and we still had fifteen years to pay the loan. My mother’s Medisave contributed half of the hospital bills while our grandparents contributed to pay the balance.

Everyday I got up at six and cleaned and fed the younger children before my first tuition student would arrive at nine. It was a good thing I helped them to achieve good results in their examinations because that helped me get many offers to teach primary students.My own studies suffered as I had barely any time to study.

On top of all the work I had to do, I was worried about my mother. I visited her everyday at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and consoled her. When I visited her it was heartbreaking to see her in so much pain. The chemotherapy had taken off all her hair. She lost a lot of weight and looked sickly and drained. I used to watch her as she fell asleep and I wept silent tears at out plight. At times I became impatient with the younger children and snapped at them. I sometimes cried to myself in my bed at night.

It was a great relief when mother got well enough to come home after a few months, but she became an added burden. She could not do any housework and tired easily if she was up for too long. To make matters worse, she nagged me continuously for not doing things properly. I was upset but kept silent because I realised that it was the despair of the situation which made her so grumpy.

Good news however came at the end of that painful year. My uncle, my mother’s brother, Tony returned from working overseas. He had become rich and was only too happy to support us. He stopped me and my siblings from all our part time jobs and made us concentrate on our studies. He stayed with us and even hired a maid to do all the housework. My grandparents too decided to take turns to stay with us and take care of my mother. I am glad to concentrate on school. My mother’s cancer is in remission now and I pray that it does not return.

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