“Know where you came from, examine how your Creator has
guided you, then where you’re going will be a delightful destination
with plenty of joyful experiences on the way.” ~Me
At first, I was not going to blog today, but since I still have one
more day before the Thanksgiving holiday is over, and since today is December 1st
starting of birthday month of a few people that are significant in my life
journey, I still have time to tell a couple of stories.
Today is my baby brother’s birthday. Well, he’s no longer baby, both he and his
wife have been my very good friends and support after my husband’s
death. I still remember him as a
younger brother that shared many of fun adventures during our days at church youth group in Bangkok led by a Chinese missionary couple from Malaysia.
Was it a co-incidence that three of us siblings were born in
the month of December? Actually it
is not a co-incidence but a convenient way that my mother used when she
registered with the Thai official to get birth certificates that she needed to
get license for teaching Chinese language. She did not remember the exact dates of her kids’ birthday
like many Thai and Chinese parents, who often registered birth certificates
long after the birth of their children.
In my mother’s case, she didn’t register her kids, and forgot the birth
dates probably because of the war and many traumatic experiences during and
after the war: first losing her husband during the World War, surviving in the
war camp, and death of first daughter, and her own mother on the way back
from the War camp to Thailand. So my brother,
being the only boy got December 1st as birthday, my eldest sister’s
December 15, and mine toward the New Year. My second elder sister was lucky since she was born seven days after
the Chinese New Year during the season when Chinese ate the left over from the feast, and made
seven vegetables stew. But since
Chinese New Year is lunar New Year, which has no set date, so I guessed my Mother settled
for April 13, which is “Songkran”, Thai New Year.
In yesterday's blog, I shared my adventure as a little girl in the
small town of Minburi, where my baby brother was born, so the story now continues
about the time of my brother’s birth pretending that it was December 1st. My Mother’s water broke and was having
birth pain, so she asked my eldest sister, who was eight or nine at the time to
go get the village midwife. Where
was my father? It was not
mentioned when the story was told, so I assumed he was taking care of his other
family when he concurrently had children of the same ages as us. It was late in the night, my sister had
to run in the dark across paddy field, with chorus of frogs and crickets
welcoming the birth. My sister
probably stepped on some other creatures like snakes or snails on the way, but
she was brave because Mama didn’t have any one, and she was in pain. She was able to wake the mid-wife up to come to deliver the baby at our house beside the water.
This is what remains of the birth house, when my elder
sister and husband went to visit Minburi last year:
To these days, my brother is forever grateful for my eldest
sister that helped my Mother to bring him into this world. He is now a doctor living back east. Here’s his picture with me, who was
like his twin when we were little.
This picture was taken when I was about seven at Lumpini Park in Bangkok. See, I still remember about the photo shoot J.
Happy Birthday December babies!!!
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