Our father was born in Xin Hui village of Canton province, China. In his youth, our grandparents moved home to Hong Kong. Our father was the second child with an older sister. Living through the World War II, he lived through difficult periods, making him appreciate life and had a set of good values inspiring us.
He was hard working, determinant & an excellent time-keeper. He wasted nothing he came across.
In 1959, he married Ms Siu-Wah MOK and we were born few years later.
In our fond memory, our father added lots of family spirit. In the era, it was rather untraditional that a fatherly figure could come down to kids’ level, playing with us, yet giving us home tuition at other times. We had much fun and many informal tuitions, which were so subtle that we now realize that the time he spent on us, instilled plenty of philosophies and living values in us.
The best that we remember are:
[Ask relevant questions as you need to; today’s work is done by the day; giving is better than taking; faithful words are often hard on the ears; silence is golden; an unpolished jade won't be a fine piece jewel and a person who is reluctant to learn won't have any basic life values; recycle what can be re-used; failure is the mother of success; happiness can come from helping others; going through extreme hardship at times of difficulties would elevate a spiritual status; people with contentment will find happiness even with very little wealth while worries will be generated in the richest who are lacking contentment ] etc., so many countless phrases. If we were to write down the idioms or maxim, it would probably fill up spaces in 1/2 of an exercise book!
Our father was kind and generous. In our secondary schooling, he strongly advocated us to take part in the weekly ‘stickers sale’ event in aid of charitable fund raising on Saturday.
At weekends and public holidays, we regularly went to offshore islands walking, hiking, enjoying Mother nature and eating seafood dishes. In spare time, he took us to cinema, theatres to balance the packed learning schedules under the Hong Kong education system. The 1st cartoon movie we watched was Snow White and the Seven Dwarf. The 1st ballet we saw was Swan Lake. Our father enjoyed quiet moments and had stamp collection, container gardening as his main hobbies. To nurture loving attitude in us, our father gave us the responsibility to take care of our dogs. Even at present, we are deeply in love our dogs. It is the most amazing experience for animal lovers that indescribable by words.
While we were studying abroad in late 1970s, the telecommunication system was not technologically advanced, like the present day. Smartphones have not been invented. Long- distance phone calls were expensive. Letters were the only communication medium to and from with our parents. We were looking forward to our WEEKLY mails.
In mid 1980s, we finished our formal education. Instead of returning to home town, our father never complained of it. With his forward thinking and broad-minded view, he agreed with us to stay on, looking for work and setting up family overseas.
With the approaching 1997 Hong Kong’s handover issue, our parents accepted our emigration suggestion. The original plan of leaving for the United Kingdom was cancelled. They decided to settle down in Toronto, a multi-cultural Metropolitan city where they could get by easily with their native Chinese language or the Cantonese dialect. They finally left Hong Kong for Canada in summer 1989.
Life in Toronto was good. Our parents settled well. Father met many like-minded people and started his spiritual journey with Buddha. Sadly, our mother passed away due to illnesses in autumn 1998. Father was living by himself. In the last decade, our father found companionship with Madam Qun-Xiu LI from China.
On reaching the great age of 70, father became even more easy going and tolerant. Living by himself meant that he had to look after him well and was very conscious of health and lifestyle habits. With his dedicated Buddha practice, our father became a vegetarian which helped him to be 'free' from diabetes type II, high lipid disease and high blood pressure disease, generally known as ‘Three High’ among the Chinese community. Sadly, his ageing bodily function was declining. He could not escape the fate of ill-health that took his life away.
Finally, we would like to share with you our father's saying ' as you sow, so shall you reap'.
************* Om Shanti ****************
