THIS IS MY LIFE -10

10. OC Played CUPID
As a corps cadet I had a pen pal in New Zealand, Corps Cadet Dorothy Rusher. When I was commissioned to Kuching, my Commanding Officer was Major Agnes Morgan, a New Zealander. She often wrote home with news about her work in Kuching. The editor of the New Zealand War was Major Leslie Rusher, Dorothy’s father. One day he made an appeal for a concertina for me. Soon I received a second-hand one! Earlier the same year, Lt. Lim also accepted an old concertina from a couple of Salvationists who had been to the International Youth Congress in 1950. Our OC, Colonel Harvey was a wizard with that instrument. On one of his visits to Melaka he gave him a short lesson after which Lt. Lim practised, playing it almost all day and night!

As I was having furlough after the Command Anniversary meetings he suggested that Lt. should also have his furlough at the same time. He also persuaded him to give me a lesson or two because he became quite good at it. The Colonel even made available a place for us to meet – in his own office, after 5 p.m. We did not feel comfortable being shut in the OC’s office, so we sat outside on the steps leading up to the lawn which in later years became a carpark. On our next lesson, I was impressed that the young man was thoughtful enough to bring some old newspapers as mats for us to sit!

The other officers teased us no end! Everyone thought the OC was playing cupid. Perhaps he was! In any case he readily gave us permission to correspond officially the following year, although we four lieutenants had kept in touch with each other from time to time.

After a period of correspondence we became engaged on 27th July 1957. Traditionally the Teochew way of announcing an engagement was to distribute peanut and sesame brittles wrapped in red paper. This his mother did, visiting their relatives and friends with the sweets.

The custom among the Cantonese was by visiting with boxes of cupcakes. We bought about a dozen boxes for our few relatives (ku mas) and their friends, giving a box to each family.