Because I live nearby Kensington Gardens, the nursing home that he had moved to, in the past year, I have been lucky to have the chance to get to know him better as I would often visit him there.
The biggest impression my Grandfather has left on me, was his strong and tenacious spirit. Even as a child, he told me that he had had a stubborn streak. He was the rebellious one in the family, who would never listen to his Grandmother like the other kids. This headstrongness continued on well into his later years. The staff at the nursing all knew how strong willed he was and that he always wanted things his way. Even after his battle with colon cancer, Grandfather wanted to live his life to the fullest, so he still tried to get out as much as he possibly could. He would travel around the city to eat dim sum and watch the horse races in order to keep his body strong and his mind sharp. Grandfather always valued his independence and self reliance, but I was always just amazed that he could somehow lug his walker onto and off of the streetcars all by himself.
One of his favourite things to enjoy in life was food. Living in the nursing home, he would often complain about the lack of Chinese food served there, so I would bring him Chinese take-out from his favourite restaurant. Over dinner, he would tell me stories as he reminisced on his past. One of the most memorable stories he ever told me, was the story of how he immigrated to Canada. Before he arrived, Grandfather told me that he had thought that Canada would be like heaven. However, when he arrived in Toronto, instead of heaven, he was only greeted by the cold and the snow. Having never experienced the dreary, freezing temperatures of a Canadian winter, it took him six months just to get used to the weather here.
For his first nine months, he lived in a room in Chinatown with his father. A room that contained only two single beds arranged side by side, pushed up against an ice box. Though his living arrangements were so modest, he told me that he was still better off than many of the other Chinese immigrants who had come before him.
Listening to my Grandfather’s stories put my own life into perspective. They made me further understand the struggle his generation went through in order to make a better life for themselves in a new country, and it made me appreciate even more the life that I am able to live today because of the sacrifices he made. Everytime I would visit him, he would always tell me to go home and study, because I had a long, bright future ahead of me. I know that his wish was for his grandchildren to receive the higher education that he never had, and I hope someday, that we can all make him proud of our accomplishments.
