My Poh Poh

As some of you may know we are currently enroute, relocating from London to Brazil. We have taken the opportunity whilst between jobs to take a couple of months traveling between the two. The main premise of this trip was my ‘Poh Poh’ (Chinese for my Granny on my mother’s side)- it was her 80^th birthday on Valentine’s Day 2010.

I was inspired last year when I was doing some charity work to put together her biography. The inspiration also came from me becoming a new mummy as well. With my sisters and my mum’s help we collated stories, old photos and recipes. As my Poh Poh’s English is not perfect and neither is my Chinese we had her tell her story bit by bit to my mother who then put her notes together in English, which were then edited by me and my sisters and then translated back into Chinese for my Poh Poh to check. As you can imagine, there were a lot of drafts!

Here’s a brief summary of her life….

Wong Sit Fong was born in 1930 in Perak, Malaysia and was second in a family of 9 childen. Her oldest, and closest brother died in a boating accident when she was a teenager. When the Japanese invaded Malaysia in 1941 she remembers holding her 4 year old sister’s hand, carrying her 2 year old sister on her back as well as a small iron and tiffin carrier with all their meagre belongings into the jungle as they ran for their lives.

She met my grandfather who was working with the British Army and he was besotted by her. After a few years or courtship they were married in 1950 and she had her first baby girl in 1951 (my mother!). She had 7 children altogether– 6 girls and 1 boy. In 1988 she immigrated to New Zealand as 4 of her children were already living there and has lived in Wellington since. She is a devout believer of Soka Gakkai (a form of Japanese Buddhism) and has become a highly respected speaker.

After her quadruple bypass surgery in 2003 her life has slowed down and she doesn’t travel as much. She spends her days tending to her rose bushes, cooking up a storm in her kitchen and looking forward to famly visits from one of her 7 children, 11 grandchildren or 4 great-grandchildren (with 3 more on the way!).

She is an inspirational lady who has lived a truly amazing life for the past 80 years and now we have her life story now to share with her great-grandchildren and many more to come.

JAM English Flashcards: Fruit and Vegetables available online at jam.shop now!