Lovely surprise

On Tuesday afternoon, I was cleaning the fish which I had just bought when the telephone rang. It rang for a while before I picked it up as I had to wash my fishy hands first.

A melodic young voice asked, " Is that Auntie Peggy ?"
"I'm Gillian and my sister Grace is with me. Are you free? May we come and visit you?"

My heart gave a leap of delight. " Of course you may! Where are you?"

"We're at the Tg Aru Beach Hotel. We'll be there in fifteen minutes!"

What a lovely surprise to hear from Gillian. She and Grace had come to me for English Language tuition when they were in primary school and I taught them through to Form Five. They were lovely young girls, very intelligent and vivacious. Grace is the older sibling and went on to train as a doctor in Cambridge University in the UK while Gillian graduated as a vet. She loves animals. I hadn't seen them since they left Malaysia so it was a huge surprise to hear from them although I did contact Gillian recently through Facebook and saw how she has grown into a lovely lanky lass.

I quickly cleaned up the fish and put them away into the refrigerator; then opened the sliding door in the living room to let in the lovely seabreeze. Staying on our own, we rarely are downstairs, hence our sliding doors are not left open. I could hardly contain my excitement at the thought of seeing the two sisters.

Soon a horn tooted and I buzzed the electronic gates open to let them in. A smart looking white four-wheel drive came in and out popped Gillian. She is as pretty as she looked in Facebook, very fair, with a lovely smile and a beautiful complexion that would be the envy of many.

"Where's Grace?"

"She's feeding the baby in the car. He hasn't finished his bottle yet."

"A baby? Oh.... I must see him!" and I rushed out to the car and there they were, Grace with a baby in her arms, feeding the adorable little tyke in the back of the car. Not long after, Grace and her baby came into the house.

"Everything looks the same, Auntie Peggy. You look the same too!"

I could feel myself grinning like a cat that got the cream, so happy was I to see these two lovely sisters. We caught up on where everyone is. Gillian is located in Hong Kong while Grace is still in the UK. She said she had given up practising as a doctor and retrained as an accountant. Wow! She is really good, isn't she? Both are very demanding disciplines and she has excelled in both. They gave me updates on the other girls who had also come to me for tuition. They have all done very well but none of them are currently residing in Sabah. A pair of siblings are in the UK and another pair in Hong Kong while another is in Australia.

This is the sad part. Many of our brilliant young Malaysians who study abroad and train as highly qualified professionals opt to make their homes overseas and come back only for holidays and to visit parents and relatives.

Grace's 5 month old baby is called Conrad and she said that it is a small world indeed as her husband also knows my son and they had met up in London in a mutual friend's place. Incidentally, Grace and my son Peter went to the same university. Then Gillian mentioned that she also knows my niece's husband who is also a vet working in Ocean Park, Hong Kong. It is indeed a small world.

Gillian took some photos and pretty soon it was time for Conrad to go back to his dad who was waiting to take him for a swim back at the hotel. In my excitement at seeing them I forgot completely about taking photos with my camera... sigh.!.... senior's lapse...... so I dont have any pictures to upload. Baby Conrad looks like his uncle, Gerald, whom his sisters lovingly call Ler Ler. Ler Ler also came to me for some tuition and he's a very bright young man. He's obtained his Masters degree and is currently working in the UK too. So their mum spends her time between the UK and Hong Kong and Gillian said, " Guess where she is most of the time?"

Well, grandmas are grandmas. We dote on our grandchildren and the little ones exert great pull over us. My two grandchildren are now in Singapore with their dad as it is the school vacation. He lives and works in Singapore so they usually spend their holidays with him. I have them during term time and I'm so blessed that they live with me for the greater part of the year.

I'm very happy that Gillian and Grace dropped by to visit and I'm thrilled to see Conrad. It's such a pleasure to see that they still remember me and have enough regard for me to come by. I guess this is one of the "perks" of being a teacher, being remembered and acknowledged. Indeed I'm very proud that my former students have all done very well in life, whether at home or abroad. Through the thirty years of being in the field of education, thousands of students have gone through my hands and I'm happy to have been part of their formative years.