Nuffnang

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Kong Kong (07.01.1922 - 10.10.2011)

My Kong Kong, Mr Ang Kean Aun, passed away peacefully @ 1.30am on 10 October 2011.

He left behind his wife of 68yrs, 6 children, 2 god-children, 16 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.

My kong kong was a man of habit/routine. I remember clearly, during school holidays during my younger days, I will be staying over at his place at Sunrise Park. And I observed his daily routine: from taking a bath at 8.00am sharp every morning to leaving the house at 8.45am sharp to go to work to coming home at 12.30pm sharp for lunch and an afternoon nap before heading back to office at 2pm sharp. He will come back home again every evening at 5pm sharp to have tea with us before starting up his diesel powered lawn mower to mow the lawn - I really do not know what is there to mow since he does it everyday! ;) After mowing his lawn, he will sit by the garden to smoke a stick of cigarette before lying down at his own little corner reading past issues of Singapore newspaper. Dinner will be served at 8pm sharp.

He does that every single day except Wednesday (he goes hashing every Wednesday evening) and weekends without fail.

On weekends, he will be playing mahjong at home with his mahjong kakis.

Kong kong's favourite food of all times is KFC Original Recipe breast meat. I did a mistake of buying him Hot'n'Spicy recipe before and was sent to KFC again to get the Original Recipe that he wanted.

His favourite teatime snack? Vadai :D A few of us karchengs also love Vadai a lot, I guess it runs in the family ;-)

His favourite beer? Tiger. :D

My fondest memory of him was way back when I was 5-6 yrs old. I was lost in my own world, when I heard a few karchengs (Kevin, Karen, Terence, James and Joanne) arguing who should go and kong kong was standing around them. It was quite noisy and I went up to them shouting "Aiyah! You all don't go! I go la!" Kong kong LOL and agreed. So I followed kong kong to his car. Not knowing where the hell are we going and not knowing what am I suppose to do :p So there I was, nervously sitting in kong kong's car wondering what have I gotten myself into, we arrived at his office :D he got me down the car, brought me to the provision shop next to his office and asked me to pick my ice cream and pick for the rest of the karchengs. Apparently the karchengs were fighting to see who shld follow kong kong to buy ice cream :D

I also remember our monthly trip to Singapore for Kong Kong's eye check up. And each trip will be a frustrating one for me coz Kong Kong hates aircon and he will always turn off the aircon half way thru the journey and we will all be sweating behind :D And each trip, without fail, Taiku / Taipak will bring us eat Banana Leaf rice. Yup, also another of Kong Kong's favourite food :D (now, small cow, u knw why I enjoy banana leaf rice? ;))

Kong kong was also an active member of Lions Club. When I was a Leo, attending the installation, my Kong Kong were very proud of me and he even informed all his Lions friends his granddaughter will be installed that night. By then, his health were not that great and Popo refrained him from attending. And the whole night those Lions and Lionesses were zoning in on me to tell me how proud my kong kong is of me :)

I am not gonna lie and say that my Kong Kong was a fun friendly man. He was not. At most times, us karchengs were terrified of him. He has a mean temper. But we know he loves us, he just didn't know how to show it to us.

Kong kong was also a man of few words. More grunts than talks :) And everyone misunderstood him as a grouchy old man.

At his funeral recently, Taiku gave a short speech. I've learnt so much about my kong kong's past that I never knew. And it made all of us cried.

The story goes like this:

Kong kong's father died before kong kong was born. Suspected of suicide due to too poor. 2 of siblings were given away. Under such circumstances, Kong Kong's mom remarried. Kong kong's stepfather was mean to him. At the age of 8, kong kong was sent to Segamat to be taken care of by his eldest brother, my Taipak Kong, as kong kong's mother couldn't protect kong kong anymore. Little did kong kong's mother know, she sent kong kong from one abusive house to another. Kong kong's sister in law was cruel towards him as well. Treated kong kong like a slave. Kong kong was brought up in a loveless environment. That's why kong kong do not know how to show his love to us :(

I know very well kong kong loves each and every of his family members a lot. On the eve of me uprooting myself from Kluang to Singapore, Kong kong gave me his brother in law (my popo's elder brother) contact numbers. Just in case I need help and couldn't find any. This is a big gesture. Why? Kong kong has 2 children and 4 grandchildren in Singapore. He knows they will be my 1st point of contact. But he wanted 100% sure that I have a back up contact :) and this Q-Kong must be a very good man. Coz kong kong don't trust anyone easily.

I also remember when I was in secondary school, I started to get interested in English Literature. My kong kong has a vast collection of reading materials. One of the book in his library of books were The Complete Work of William Shakespear. I borrowed from Kong kong, not before he telling me I am not to lend it to others and how I am not to be too trusting to others as no matter how close they are to you, there will be a chance of them betraying you. I didn't get it then. I didn't understand why would he say such stuffs and didn't understand why he has such thinking. Now I know. His life experiences with his stepfather and sister in law taught him that :(

Kong kong have lived a full life. May he rest in peace.

We all have concluded that Kong kong is having a fun time in heaven now. Drinking his Tiger beer, smoking like a chimney, eating kfc and vadai, playing mahjong, learning how to play a harp and learning how to use an iPhone5 from Steve Job ;)

I miss you, kong kong :(

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