Old Maid (freewrite)

I don't mind to 'sleep' being an old maid. That just means I have fulfilled my purpose on earth.

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She told me once over the lunch.

Back then when she was young, life wasn't easy for her and family. Her dad passed away when they were young, leaving behind little to no inheritance.

She had seen her siblings passed away either because of the war or due to unknown sickness or some died young during infancy without knowing the cause. Science, technology and medicine were not as advanced as today.

Situation got worse due to war time. Everyone was in fear of death and poverty. She saw her mother working real hard to support the family. Thus, as young as God knew the age, she somehow decided in her heart she would not get married in order to support her mother and family in whatever ways she could.

Since young, she worked as helper, assisting her mum at their noodle stall. I could not believe those time one bowl of noodle only cost few cents. Being the eldest, she took upon herself the responsibility to take care of her mother and siblings, and therefore she was not highly educated.

As her mother got older, not able to work anymore, she started to look for other jobs, hoping to find a more luxurious one. Luck was on her side when she bumped into an expatriate who loved Chinese Asian food. She worked as her maid-cum-chef for very long time.

At the same time, some nights she had part-time job as babysitter to other expatriate who needed to travel back to their country for awhile.

One amazing thing was she did not acquire any skill of driving car or riding a motorcycle, hence she travelled everywhere by bus. Or sometimes she walked. No wonder she had a stamina of a bull.

I count myself blessed to get to know her after I got married. She is the older sister of my father-in-law. And when I gave birth to my eldest son, she took care of me and my baby during the whole confinement month. Oh I am extremely in love with her cooking. Delicious and healthy.

Now she still babysit my eldest son whenever I needed to go out with my husband. And every Saturday we will go and visit her while having lunch with her - of course she is the one who does the cooking. She says, "As long as I still can cook, I want to cook. Until I sleep, then I will not cook anymore". When she says 'sleep', she meant her passing on.

I don't mind to 'sleep' being an old maid. That just means I have fulfilled my purpose on earth. ~Aunt Margaret

She never consider "old maid" as an insult. To her, it is a honor given her to serve.

_{My aunt, Margaret, and my son}

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If you do not know what freewrite is, it is a plan by @mariannewest and @improv to just free flow write out our thoughts, where there is no fear of whether what we write is good or not. Just relax and have fun and write in that 5-minutes-time. Here is the introductory post. Come on, you can start joining and have fun too! ☺ And now we have @freewritehouse, yay! Have a visit and you will not regret it!



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