My Mother

My mother was born in the early 1920’s. At the age of sixty five, she passed away. In those days it was common that children were sold because of poverty. A couple bought her and two other children. My mother was the eldest and she never received any education, while the other two children were English educated.

When I was seventeen, an old friend of the grandmother related to me the story of my mother. That year the grandmother passed away. My cousin sister Catherine and I were with her for seven days before she finally crossed over. I noticed the suffering over her slow death. She was a Catholic.

Most Chinese of that generation are members of secret societies originated from China. They fought over the control of territories and collected protection fees from the community. My mother’s foster parents were members of such triads. I remember seeing a five red dots tattoo on the grandmother’s hand. Tattoos are signatures for members.

The grandparents were in the entertainment circle. In those days, the night life was mostly cabarets with dance hostess in cheongsam. That was where my father met my mother.

Soon after the demise of my father, my mother married another man. He became my step father. I was six and we stayed with the grandmother for some time. The grandfather was no longer around then.