Remembering the Matriarch of our Bedok kampong house

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11 July 2026, we honour the birthday of our paternal grandmother - the quiet pillar of our Bedok kampong house. Had time allowed her to stay, she would be 129 this year; instead, her story closed gently in December 1969 at the age of 73.

In this 1960 photograph, she sits at the veranda in full Nyonya kebaya splendour, as befitting her age, gathered with the ladies of the family around the household table covered with a hand‑knitted white lace tablecloth she had woven herself - the very same table that still rests in our mother’s home today. The moment is tender and ceremonial: it is 2nd October 1960, the day her eldest and only son - our father - was to be married to our mother. They were awaiting the bridal couple's arrival to the house.

Her niece stands beside her, while across the table sit our mother’s auntie and our Tua Ee, mom’s oldest sister, dressed in soft lilac. In this quiet tableau, you can almost feel a new family linkage taking shape - two households, two lineages, meeting at one table on the cusp of a wedding day.

Behind them, Rumah Bombay rises in the background, solid and familiar, anchoring the scene in the landscape of our Bedok kampong, with glimpses of the nearby Bedok Beach beyond. It is a photograph that holds not just faces, but the beginnings of a shared future.



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