Elaine
Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies
This is Elaine's anthem and her little piece of peace and quiet in the garden.
Buttocks grow flower
Elaine recounts the burning of not one but two kampongs in her childhood. One major fire was the one in Bukit Ho Swee. In her words, if you are lucky, you escape, if not then you'd be burnt to death. At that time, she and her siblings had to take care of a baby with a medical condition, her brother. Their mother died in childbirth. She was 4. Her father remarried and they had to fend for themselves. She took care of her brother until he passed at age 8. They cut branches to cook their own meals. Burnt food, they will still eat it. If there's nothing to eat at home they will go to the bread shop to get bread ends. Their allowance was 10c a day from their stepmother which doesn't afford them anything. The water in the kampong is very cold. One day she took the water that her stepmother boiled for tea to bathe and got a beating until the "buttocks grow flower". She thinks because they do not have a mother that her siblings have not stayed close. She stopped studying at age 14 because they couldn't afford books and was often scolded by the teacher for it. After her dad got a job taking care of the dead at the Toa Payoh Hospital, things started to take a turn for the better. In the hospital hostel, she had friends of all races and could speak Malay very well.
Open playful laughter
She worked at a Shell petrol station in Balestier. Her future husband is a crane driver who would refuel there and "open playful laughter" with her. She says she is not one to joke around, she would beat people up instead and has a hell of a temper. She climbs buildings and has no qualms entering the male toilet. She says her husband knows she is a tomboy and the union is fate. Her husband has impaired mobility now because of a stroke. She used to work the night shift so she could take care of her kids in the day. That's where she found friends. Now that her kids are grown, life is better. Even her stepmother has remarked about how hard her life was before but she is "prosperous and happy" now. Her siblings had remarked that her boys cannot study when they were younger. The words have cut deeply. Her sons are now graduates and everyone remarks how well she is doing now. She says it has nothing to do with her, it is because of her husband and she was "entrusted with his blessing".
I complain you
Her daughter-in-law has a good temper, unlike her. I asked Johnny if he had ever seen Elaine lose her temper. He says yes, at the kopi tiam where she quarreled with someone. She recounts an incident involving Johnny when they were out on an excursion that required taking the bus. As Johnny is on a wheelchair, she asked the bus driver to help who seemed reluctant to. She lost it. We have a glimpse into Johnny and Elaine's friendship. In the beginning, Elaine would say hi to Johnny and he would ignore her. Elaine is a big defender of animals. One time, she saw a man beat a dog with a pole. She beat the guy up with the pole. She is a community cat caregiver and she also saw a girl kick a cat and proceeded to take her and her mother to task for it. In another incident, someone threw her beloved community cat down from the a high floor and cracked its head. Her son cried uncontrollably. She called the police and when they came they asked her why she called the police for a cat. She said cat not life? I complain you. With her son, they buried the cat and gave it its last rites.