Our Bedok Kampong House Singapore

Today is a special day because, 61 years ago it was the wedding day of our youngest paternal aunt and her beloved, whom they met way back in Kampong Soopoo before the move here to our Bedok kampong house in 1954. They continued to stay here and we welcomed our 3 cousins as the years passed. So grateful they were able to celebrate their 50 th wedding anniversary in 2014 before she passed two years later. From two changes of wedding attire, having the tea ceremony at home, and honouring our late step grandmother before the wedding car took them away to his place, it was indeed a day to remember. Even the kampong folks celebrated with them! Congratulations on their 50th wedding anniversary in 2014

This (circa) 1950 photo by Tony Holt of the RAF Changi Association is such a beauty, reminding us on how lovely the east coast of Singapore was then. See that Katong-Bedok bus, which was established in 1935, plying this Upper East Coast Road without traffic woes, and coming from Bedok corner where the terminus was, just a few minutes’ walk from our Bedok kampong house.

The first 3 rd generation daughter born into our Bedok kampong house! Our dearest cousin, who just turned 1 in this 1966 photo, poses with her mom in the veranda of the house and actually looking at the camera! Today, she like Singapore is an SG60 baby! Happiest of birthdays to you!

Turning back the clock even further to 1928 (circa), is this studio portrait of our grandmother with her first child, our Aunt Annie, just about 4 to 5 years then. Life was so promising to her but cut short when she was taken ill with TB at age 28 and passed away just 2 weeks after contracting the disease in 1952 on this day 73 years ago. Our Bedok kampong house remembers you Ko Besar with this tribute!

On this day, Sept 13 th 1945, 80 years ago – the huge ceremony on the steps of the Municipal Building (former City Hall) of surrender presided by Lord Louis Mountbatten was attended by thousands. Our father, then just 15, took time to be there, he told us – and kept this special 4-page Straits Times report, bringing it into our Bedok kampong house and even after we moved he had it - until recently donated to National Library Board. All copyright for these pages now belong to them.

This is our mother during her honeymoon atop Penang Hill in October 1960 taken by our late father. What a beautiful shot! (photo has been colourised). You were just 22 years then… but the same loving lady all these years – Happy and Blessed 87 th birthday to our Mom! Selamat Hari Jadi dan Panjang Panjang Umur!

This week we commemorate the birthday of the Bedok kampong house Patriarch our grandfather. Born in 1878 he would have been 147 years this year and so we celebrate his life with this 1911 testimony from his superior from the Bukit Timah Rubber Estates (original is with the National Library Board). What an excellent role model for us all. He was 33 years old then. Also included here is a slightly earlier photo of 1907 when he was part of a rifle shooting team! October 1911 1907

The year 1958 seems to be special to our household. Our late father kept the cover of a wall calendar from that year (and we just found it). Somehow, we have a bank pocket calendar from that year as well. 1958 was the year our parents started dating too. But best of all, that year in December was the time the first wedding took place at our Bedok kampong house with our paternal aunt. The rest of the cousins and womenfolk, all between 18 to 20 years of age then, found the time to drop by Bedok Beach, which was just a few minutes down a path from the house! December 1958 at Bedok Beach very near Bedok Corner

All it took was a housekeeping exercise at our mother’s home last week to find this red Bakul and then match it to this 1950 photo and realised it was the Bakul our grandmother once carried like a handbag cum carrier and continued using when she moved into our Bedok kampong house 4 years later in 1954. So vogue this bag! Very “Sepekah” we think!