Aunty Lucy

We met up with three generations of women on Elton’s side of the family today to celebrate Mother’s Day. I gave each of the women in the family a present which I had brought with me from China. It is such a joy seeing the looks on their faces when they open their gifts. I’ve never been a big fan of gift giving. To be honest, I’m always uncomfortable about getting people gifts. I always worry too much whether they’d like it and the thought of getting something someone hates scares me so much I avoid it at all cost. So today, when thinking of something I can learn from, I realized the joy of giving. Sometimes, it’s not about the gift but the giving. Doesn’t matter how small or how big. It’s the thought that counts.

Then I thought of my Aunt Lucy. If there’s one person in my life who has taught me the joy of giving, she’s it. I call her Kuche Lucy. Kuche means younger aunt in Cantonese. She’s always giving somebody something, sometimes even to the point of frustrating family members because she gives more than she can afford. When I was a kid, she used to take me to the temples and give me pennies to throw into the bags of beggars sitting beside the pathway. In my teens, she taught me about being enterprising by encouraging me to sell book holders in school. The last time I saw her last January, she shared a little story that struck a deep chord with me.

She’s currently a member of her the community council at her neighborhood. Every year, the council decides to organize a special function for Christmas. In the past, they have always had some sort of party for the neighborhood. On three occasions, she’d suggested throwing a luncheon for the garbage truck collectors and on each occasion was struck down. Last year, she suggested it again. Frustrated with the idea of it, they finally agreed on the condition that she organized it herself. And that is exactly what she did. With no location to throw the party, she decided to ask the President of the community’s Chamber of Commerce if he would rent out a space at the local shop lot to throw a party for 10 garbage truck collectors who were all foreign workers from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Indonesia. He was so touched by the idea that he decided not only to let her use a large shoplot for free, he even volunteered a large contribution for her to arrange the catering! So she organized a big buffet for them and in her usual casual way, waited for the garbage collectors to come by the next week and told them to come for a meeting on the designated day. When they arrived on the day of the party, many of them were moved to tears. They thanked her with heartfelt words, telling her about the discrimination they sometimes faced living in Malaysia, how hard it was being separated from their families and living like invisible people in a foreign land. This Christmas, she shared the joy of being an equal in God's eyes.

If I ever have a daughter, I will name her Lucy. So each time I look at her, I will be reminded of Kuche Lucy’s kindness, her charity, her modesty, her humility, her boldness and her sensitivity to the things many people don’t see. Sometimes, it’s the simplest things in people that make them so special.