The Next Generation

In the blink of an eye.

Time does pass by... fast. 

You think you are still young; but there are tell-tale signs that you are getting older.

Perhaps the best reminder is when I see the generation after us.

 Esther on the right is daughter number 2. Who is next to her? She shot the question a couple of months ago. Oh she does seem familiar and I have seen her somewhere... my old memory failed me. Both met over a meal in Singapore. She poked at me and said I was obtuse to have forgotten her. 

Who was she?

Of course she revealed.

 She is JM daughter to a university mate back in the 70s !

 So, when you are free and easy, you do have the time to dig up some photos and then reminisce about them. The photos were taken in 1980 ? We went for a trip to Lake Toba in Sumatra and since then I have never been back there.That's me on the right and SB on the left. JM is daughter to SB. What a coincidence that the girls met in Singapore.

SB is an old soul mate. We met in the University of Malaya and since then have kept in touch. We also did the teaching diploma programme together and we both landed up as teachers in different schools. SB was friend material the moment we set eyes on each other. As she was a local of Bangsar, it was not uncommon that I would drop over to her place for her mother's best Hainanese chicken rice. Her mother is a jovial lady and today is still a joker. I think it is fun to be around the old dame and listen to her wise tales.

SB has met my parents too and back in the younger days, she even made a trip to Muar to put up a couple of nights. We can share without limit and many a time we talk about loved ones confidentially. There are some souls who click immediately. She is one of them. Though we do not meet often, we do contact each other for important occasions and become happy for good moments. We know we can call on each other; any time; anywhere. Sometimes even when we do not speak, we know each other's  heart beat. That's is friendship.

So, it would be soon when I will invite SB for the next wedding in the home.

Now, this reminds me that I am already a grandmother. A grandmother. Am I really one?

That's daughter number 1, Grace who met Keith a couple of weeks a go. What did they do?

Compare and contrast.

Grace has a daughter and Keith has a son.

Both were school mates and Keith's good wife is classmate to Grace.

Yes. It's the next generation now.

By the way Keith's mum is teacher Molly who happened to be an ex-colleague of mine in Seafield.

What a small world.

But it is a relief too to see the next generations passing on the torch and carrying the family values. As parents we hope to be good examples to them and may they not be slothful and goalless but live as exemplary figures and responsible parents and citizens of the nation.

Of the next generation.