A Speech for my Grandmother on her 88th Birthday
Hello everyone, my name is *,if you must know, my rank is Grandchild number 4 but it does sound better to say Grandson Number 3. Nothing about the gender. So no offence to the fairer sex, just that the rank goes one up. As I was thinking about what I was going to say, I had to remind myself that I am taking the perspective of all my other cousins and not just mine, which would be a challenge considering I think we have all had fairly different experiences with her.
But I think I may have found some similarities and I’m going to share this with you in the form of the impact she has had on my life, and which I am fairly certain is the same she would have had on the lives of my cousins and my sister.
Ammama was one of those who were instrumental in exposing us, grandchildren to the importance of religion, prayer, knowledge of God – the knowledge of a God who loves, a God who lives, who is personally involved in our lives– and of course–a God who sometimes needs to whip you if you aren’t a good little boy. Ammama would of course make the last point most known to you. Parents – and grandparents these days try to expose their children, grandchildren to music and reading, both of which are good things. But there certainly are better things, and Ammama exposed us to the best.
Do you all know that Ammama likes to time travel? By time-travel, I mean that she likes to visit events that happened in the past and re-live them. Yes she really does. In fact, We have a new paper article where she was interviewed on the Japanese occupation and here she timetravels and shares with the reporter her life then. And I must confess that yes I have inherited that from her. They say that the furthest you can time-travel to is the time when you are 3. And one of my earliest memories is when I was 3 years old, might have even have been my 3rd birthday, and sitting on her lap in front of this elaborate altar dominated by a picture of the face of Jesus. I am sitting on her lap and she is silent if my memory serves me correctly, she is also weeping. But definitely silent. Till today, I do travel a lot to that scene, but honestly have yet to find out the circumstances surrounding that picture. I don’t think I need to because that scene has already taught me something. That many a time, especially in one’s darkest hours, the best prayer is to remain silent in God’s presence. Ammama, in that single instance, and together with her language of God, contributed in planting the seeds that has now grown into this tree which gives fruit and shade to me and my family.
Ammama taught us not to waste food. Of course she was not the only one, but I really liked the way she did it. It was creative, gentle yet so impactful. She would say, you see those ants, ______. (And you really could see ants scurrying around carrying these tiny morsels of food.) You see those ants, ______. They are each going to carry every grain of rice that is left on your plate and bring them to heaven where God is and tell God that this boy is wasting food. That did it, I suppose. To date when I am tempted to leave some food behind, this story comes to mind. Of course as adults we just get rid of the ants.
Such creativity was also used to get me to confess to a lie. There were times when we had to tell a lie. I mean who here hasn’t lied. Ammama would say, if you lie, your ear lobes would curl. And when we did lie, we would check our ear lobes. And I would have to cry “foul” to that strategy because, I realised that my ear lobes curled no matter what. I would go to sleep with my ears curled and wake up the next morning with my ears still curled.
Before I end, I would like to say that Ammama, is an inspiration to all of us- Not just in terms of how she looked after us when we were younger, how she loves and cares for us enough to be there at every turning point of our life – weddings, births of our children, funerals, how she dispatches prayers to heaven on our behalf, or how she is more than willing to offer a listening ear to our problem. But I think a lot more in terms of the tough life she has led and how she has overcome. Sometimes we think that we have it tough in life. But I can tell you, I don’t know any one who has had it tougher than Ammama. The occasion doesn’t call for me to share the details. BUT look at her today, she is 88 years old and sitting here with her family, celebrating her birthday. And we are not just celebrating her birthday, we are all celebrating her, her unconditional love for us, and her presence in our lives. On behalf of my cousins, young and old, near and far, I would like to say, Thank you, Ammama. We Love you. Have a Happy Birthday!
