Moving, Moving On...But Some Things Must Remain Unchanged

We had been unpacking at and prepping our new home in Puchong for a while now. There are so many boxes to open, so many things to decide and even more things to do! The neighbors must be wondering where these empty cardboard boxes outside our gate keep coming from; there is a new pile for the garbage man everyday!

I had never done this without Jeannie and even then, she made most of the decisions (and did most of the work!). This time around it is Krystyn who has to "learn by doing" and she has been doing a great job so far.

Afterall, she is the only woman of this household now. JJ is our "muscle man" and I wonder how this skinny fellow has so much strength to effortlessly carry some real heavy stuff.

In consultation with Hui Sin's mother, they determined that January 16th 2009 was an auspicious day to "move". So January 16th it was and though we are still not yet living there now, we spent our first over-night at the house last Friday (16th). Krystyn also cooked the first meal there and she is just as efficient like Mummy. Hui Sin cooked a good chicken curry and Elaine was over for dinner with hubby Gary.

Jeannie would have been proud to see Krystyn carrying on traditions; she has taught her well. The motivations behind such traditional practices are not grounded in religion but in good intentions and often, filial piety. They are some of the values that were imparted since young.

So many things have come to pass since Jeannie's untimely demise almost exactly one and a half years ago. For a while it had been just adjusting to Jeannie's physical absence and slowly, we are now doing things despite her absence. Jeannie had always encouraged the kids to grow and they are doing just that. Growth comes with moving on and moving into a new home is timely and symbolic. They are now charting their own lives based on much inspiration and values from Mummy.

However, some things do not change as Prince Cheah demonstrated. The first thing Krystyn did in the new house was to set up "Mummy's place". As soon as she played one of Mummy's favorite mantras on the CD player, Prince took to meditating as he used to do with Jeannie every morning for the years they were together. He has now claimed the space under Jeannie's photo as his own and did not move from there until the whole mantra finished. These photos tell the story. Later, when I can find them I will include past photos and audio/video for comparison.

Another thing that does not change is that we must always have our Taiping soy sauce...the best in the world! Even "Kajang mui" Jeannie loved it and we used to buy literally gallons from Taiping before it was sold in KL. The manufacturer is Kwong Bee Chun and the brand, Gold Deer.