Page 129 - Stories from our Grandparents

Mdm Woo Mei Chun Born 1952

ello, my name is Woo Mei Our meals then, only consisted of pork lard with
Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School
Chun and I am 66 years old this By Chloe Chung Ru Ting dark soya sauce on rice. We could not afford to
year. I was a sales executive waste our food. I still remembered that our rice
Hbut I retired 6 years ago. container was empty for a few days so we only
consumed sweet potatoes to fill our stomachs.
Since birth, I stayed in the 2nd level of a shophouse along Waterloo Life was not that easy then, but through this
Street. The shophouse belonged to my grandfather so my family and experience, I have learnt to be thankful for what
I stayed there for free. However, more than 8 families including mine I have now.
stayed together, resulting in my family and I having to live in a small, After school, I would run to the longkang near my house, along with my
cramped bedroom. My 6 other siblings and I had to sleep on the floor friends. We would catch the spiders in the bushes that were next to
while our parents slept on the bed. Amongst the 8 families, we had to the longkang.
share a common kitchen and toilet.

My father told me that a bomb landed on their row of shophouses during “One particular day, when we were busy in
World War II. Thankfully, it didn’t hit them and they were safe, but they were the bushes catching spiders, I heard one of
frightened. They had to escape to Johor Bahru to hide. That was the reason my friends calling us to see something that
why my second sister was born there. They returned to Singapore after the was floating at the river. At first, we all thought
war. After the war, there was not enough of food so they ate sweet potatoes it was just a coconut floating in the murky
to keep themselves full.
waters. However, we soon realised
that it was not
a coconut but a
human head.”

I was 6 years old when Lim Yew Hock came into ruling. The
government built rental flats for us. It was then when I moved to
Old Kallang Airport where the flat consisting 2 bedrooms and a hall
costed $55 a month. Although we were staying in my grandfather’s
shophouse for free, he controlled everything we did so my parents
decided that it was better to move out. Once, we were very poor.
To ease our financial burden, my parents had to rent out a bedroom
for $30 a month. We had to learn to be thrifty and not to waste our
money unnecessarily.

70 Grandma Stories Grandma Stories 71