An ode to my granddad

So I returned from the Tokamachi matsuri this afternoon and learnt that my granddad passed away on Friday. The funeral is today. Too late for me to fly back.

My granddad was bedridden for the last 2 years. But before that, he was a hale and hearty old man. He used to be a body builder. He took walks at least twice a day. When I was a kid, he would sometimes bring me to the playground nearby. Once he asked if I wanted to go out with him. I said sure! We ended up walking all the way from Spottiswoode Park (opposite Singapore General Hospital) to OCBC Bank at Raffles Place! I was damned tired by the walk man! I was a small girl then (before I even went to school ok) so my legs were shorter then and I needed to take more steps. I think I complained along the way, so we stopped at a ma ma shop to buy some chewing gum to keep my mouth shut. Anyway, at the bank, he gamely took a piece of chewing gum I offered and ended up having to remove his dentures at the bank to extract the gum! Haha, I always thought that was funny.

He was a curious old man. I would sometimes see him stopping along the road peering at god-knows-what. Things that we would never notice. He had a toothy grin, when he chose to smile. But he was also a man of few words (preferring to grunt rather than talk) and had a fiery temper. He once called some TV repairmen robbers when they quoted him an exorbitant price for his TV repairs.

Yeah, I think that pretty much sums up my granddad, who rests in peace now. Au revoir, gong gong.