Yeye invited his brothers along and only 2nd uncle can make it and so after paying respects buy burning incense, we had a meal together and since it has been a while since the two brothers can sit down and chat over a beer.. everyone was relaxed and happy...
And after a few beers, Max started to ask many questions and we found out a little more about the Chua family too...
- Remember our Indonesian Surname? Actually it was given to us or found out by 2nd Uncle as he was the only one amongst all three brothers to get university education and he did his education in Indonesia... He actually looked through the books for names to find this surname.
- Previously we were told that Ah Gong died because of alcohol poisoning... and that he drank too much. But leh, we now have more details about his death. Apparently, Ah Gong loved to drink wu jia pi... and on the night of his death, he drank the power liqour and ate durian.. His son (Yeye) told him, "Dad, don't eat that... this is bad.." And he just smiled and say "It's ok lah.. I will be ok.." Alas, he died as a result of alchohol poisoning of some sort cos he ate durian and drank hard liquor.. which is supposedly a NO NO combination.
- We found out also that Ah Gong is rather influential with friends both in high places in the Black and the White paths... meaning he has friends on the streets and also frens from Govt bodies...
- We also found out that Ah Gong, despite being the so called "Blacksheep" of the family (the rest of the family did not like it that he was noisy after he got drunk and that is why they chased him out of the Chua Family house in the end...), was actually one of Lao Gong's favorite sons. But leh, he is not son of the main spouse but the "concubine".
- We also found out more about Ah Ma... 2nd Uncle said that she is a nice woman who is very motherly and takes good care of everyone. She is so kind and so good natured that she is the type of person tat if you scolded her and spat at her, she will wipe the spit away and continue to smile and talk to you. That is why when she passed on, there were alot of people who were very sad.
Ah Gong was born in SGP and he met Ah Ma when he returned to Indonesia. He met her someday behind some mountain.. and dio sot ;) hahahaha... And when his dad asked him to get married, he said he wanted to marry no one else except that girl he saw.. and so despite her being in another country and being older, they got married in the end..- And so there are two parts of in the story of how Ah Ma died. Part 1 was that leh, her brother was very sick and then she went to the temples to check if she should go back and visit and the gods said no.. cos she will be in danger if she does.. and so she decided not to go back. But Great grandma insisted that she goes back to help her family as there is going to be some festival and they needed extra help to run things. So despite her misgivings, she went back.
When she went back, she did not knock before going to the room of her sick brother... and somehow, according to old wive's tales, his sickness got passed to her.. and shortly after, she fell sick and he got better. 2nd uncle was there with her during her last days and Ah Ma was really unlucky, she was down with "mo dan" and there was no doctor in her village. They finally sent her to the next city, only to find that the doctor is so sick he is unable to walk... so she had no doctor and died. - The other part is that there were rumours that one of the relatives came to Singapore to do business and in the end all his stuff got confiscated and he lost alot of money and so when they asked the gods, they were told it is Ah Ma's husband who did that and so they placed a curse on them as revenge.
- Also, remember Peng's Court? I finally found out why it is called Peng's court.. cos that is part of Ah Gong's father's name. But despite that, this house does not actually belong to him.. or the "family" so to speak intially.... it was bought by 3rd grand uncle who was living in indonesia then... and then he after contemplation decided to put it under his 4th brother's name since he was educated and was also in Singapore at that time. Also it seemed a few parties had a share in it and that was why when Ah Gong's dad passed away, and when they wanted to sell and split the shares, they did not share a part with Ah Gong's three sons. And probably why they had the "right" to chase ah gong out of the house.
- Most of these info are just hearsay and i think the two old uncles also dun have very good memory. but i think it is still good to have a copy of our family history jotted down somewhere;) So some of the things to me still has alot of missing pieces. Like Yeye remembers that these other family members did them three brothers wrong by letting them stay not in the house but in a corner under the stilts initially and eventually even chased them away. However, Max was taken care of by one of his aunties when he was young and he remembers being very well taken care of and being pampered by them. So I think there is still some missing piece somewhere about the real reason why Ah Gong was asked to leave the house and why that happened when his father was still alive since he was his dad's fav son.
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