Ah Gu our McGyver
By TAN HORNG HAN
Working trips down south enable a young man to see a new side of a beloved uncle.
AH Han, on your wedding day, why don’t we go play tennis in the morning before you head off to receive your wife?” exclaimed my uncle during one of my business trips down to Johore Bahru recently.
Now, had this suggestion come from anyone else, it would not have surprised me. But my uncle? Someone who has always been a stern father (to his children), and a strict uncle (to others like me)?
Early this year, my company posted me for business assignments every fortnight. And every time I headed down south, I would make it a point to visit Ah Gu (my mother’s brother) and his family. In fact, I dropped by so we could engage in our all-time favourite game – tennis.
Ah Gu has been a teacher all his life; even after retirement, he is still very much sought after by many who wish for their kids to excel in Maths. Perhaps it is his profession that is responsible for his disciplined nature, be it at work or home. Nevertheless, my frequent trips to Johor Bahru, which began this year, allowed me to “reconnect” with a new side of Ah Gu.
To begin with, I never knew he is a handyman who can fix practically anything that’s goes wrong around the house. He fixed a leaking roof, repaired a chair the bottom of which had come loose, and even installed a water heater all by himself. You should have seen the way his face shone with pride when he told me, “Ah Han, because I fixed the water heater all by myself, I’ve saved at least a hundred ringgit on labour charges!” So there you have it – our very own McGyver!
I have also discovered that Ah Gu is a sentimental guy who keeps all the little souvenirs given him by his ex-students. During one visit, , he even showed me an autograph signed by a fellow graduate from his batch that studied at the-then English College in Johore Baru more than 40 years ago! He told me that he would be taking the autograph with him to the wedding of his student’s daughter last month, so they could regale those good old days.
Being the stern person that he is, I never expected Ah Gu to be a great storyteller, too. Had he not shared his stories with me – especially those concerning his father – I would not have known that my grandpa made one of the best curry fish head dishes in town, or that he sent his kids off to school almost every morning with freshly steamed pau. Or that grandpa spoke fluent English.
The fact that grandpa was a chef to a royal family also surprised me – I never knew we had a “celebrity chef” in my family. (He died when my mum was only 12, which means I never knew him at all.)
There is a proverb which goes, “What you don’t know won’t hurt.” That’s true, in most aspects of life, but not when it comes to family, especially someone you love dearly.
The hi’s and bye’s we exchanged a few times a year, during Chinese New Year and the school holidays, did little to draw me closer to Ah Gu. Had it not been for my trips down south for work, I might never have found out that, despite his nonchalant reaction, he really appreciated the surprise party (masterminded by my cousin Andy) which his kids threw for him and his wife when they came to Kuala Lumpur for my wedding recently. What I really want to say is that we may have lots of family gatherings, but how much do we really know aboutour relatives, especially the elderly ones? I believe that visiting Ah Gu and aunty, having dinner together, and thrashing each other out on the tennis court, have helped me uncover so much more about them and our family.
So, if there’s someone in your family whom you really want to connect with at a deeper level, go ahead and act on it. You never know how much you can gain from that person.
4 years ago
