The COVID-19 pandemic is merely the tip of the iceberg compared to life challenges my late grandmother went through decades ago. Like many women before her, my late grandmother too married in her teens. A year later she had a son then all of a sudden marital bliss was robbed away from the young bride when her first husband passed away due to cholera.
At the same time, another crisis struck their village in China in the form of drought that subsequently led to famine. By that time her first late husband's family were too impoverished to care for her and her infant son. She was left without much choice but to gave up on her infant boy in the care of her parents-in-law so that she could remarried and followed her second husband to Malaya in the 1930s.
To define life as tough in Malaya was an understatement. My late grandfather practically had nothing. He toiled tirelessly so that he could provide for his immediate family and to send money to his siblings in China for purchasing of land and buffaloes. He carried the burden of being the eldest son responsibly. He passed away barely hitting the age of 40 years old.
Again, my late grandmother became a widow for the second time. This time around however situation was even more challenging as she was left alone in a foreign land to raise four offsprings. She could survive as she and her other three daughters were skillful farmers, cooks and seamstresses. My father had just turned ten.
In retrospect, people in the past were much more resilient. Young people these days always look for the easy way out of problem. If circumstances becomes unfavorable, they sometimes contemplate suicide.
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Wheat
All images were taken with Xiaomi Mi A2 Smartphone.