THIS IS MY LIFE - 1

PERSONAL STORY

This is my story; to God be the glory!
Only a sinner, saved by grace!

1. CHILDHOOD - NEW IMMIGRANT
Sometime in 1936 a young married couple – FOONG York Wan and AW Wai Ching emigrated from Kwangchow in China to Singapore. They were being sponsored by his eldest sister, FOONG Sung. On the way their first child was born in Hong Kong. That was me, FONG Pui Chan. (Years later my stepmother told me that I was actually born on board the ship. No wonder I had no birth certificate!)

Our first home in Singapore was a room above a coffeshop in a row of shop houses at the foot of Pasir Panjang Hill. Later on we moved to the city, a room upstairs of 11 Bencoolen Street. The chief tenant of the shop house was a woman called Mui Kwai or Rose. My sister, FONG Pui Sim, must have been named after her, because years later when she tried to obtain a copy of her birthday certificate, it was discovered that a baby girl born on 27th August 1938 was registered as Rose at the mentioned address.

It was here that Father set up a stall on the pavement, or five-foot way, in front of the house. I have recollections of sitting on a low wooden stool, sipping black coffee and munching “kuo tiao” for breakfast while he plied his trade as a petition or letter writer. In Canton he had been educated in Chinese but also learnt English. His clients were new immigrants from China who needed their official documents translated or filled in etc. He wrote or replied their letters to and from relatives in China.

After a while Father met a primary schoolteacher, Mr. HO Pak Khuan who later married one of his cousins, FOONG Chim. He became a teacher in the same school at Mount Emily, Wilkie Road. I remember once being in his office and also seeing him teaching a class of boys. Soon Father became the headmaster.

Then we moved to another place further up the same road, to 37 Bencoolen Street. It was the fifth of a row of 6 double-storied terrace houses. The upper floor was partitioned into 5 small rooms, 2 in front and 2 at the back with another smaller one without a window, facing the staircase. Our home was a back room with a bed of a few planks over 2 wooden narrow benches, a table a 2 stools. Our clothes were in suitcases in a corner of the room. We children usually slept on a mat on the floor. From its only window I remember watching the skyscraper Cathy building going up. I could also look down at the roofs the kitchen and common bathroom downstairs. Like anywhere else, the common toilet at the far end of the building was a hole with a night soil bucket below.

Mother gave birth to 2 more children but they were given away because they would bring bad luck to the family! I now suspect it was due to the fact that they were girls! Besides, our parents’ marriage was on the rocks. Father’s problem was in wine, women and song!
When news broke out about the Sino-Japan war, he left us with a woman colleague and went to Hong Kong in 1941. I never ever saw him again.!