Candlelight

 

繁 简 Eng

I heard a story recently:

“After we had grown up, we were busy. Work load, family responsibilities, social life.... We had hectic schedule so that we hardly had time to spend with Pa and Ma. We rarely think of cherishing the time with them and we needed to seize this opportunity while we could. When our parents cared about us, we felt that they were long-winded.  When we talked with them, sometimes we got impatient and were disrespectful towards them. However, they always looked nonchalant and forgave us for our bad manners.

My father had been working in a Cantonese restaurant before retirement.  As he needed to start working from dawn till night, he used to live in the dormitory of the restaurant and seldom stayed at home.  I get four siblings. Our age differences are small. Ma was the only one who took care of us and did the chores. Pa and Ma toiled long and hard for us. However, my mother was optimistic and cheerful. She often smiled and seldom complained.

We had been living in a rudimentary public government housing estate since I was small. There was only one block in the housing estate. It sat on a hillside.  There were about 50 small housing units on each floor of the block. The units were aligned on both sides of a long corridor.  One night, our building experienced power outage. At that time, no emergency support was available. The whole building was plunged into darkness. There was no illumination along the corridors and staircases. My sister worked in catering at that time. She usually returned home around midnight. As it was not convenient to contact her, she was not informed about the power outage. When she reached the lobby, she realized that lifts operation had been suspended. There were no lights, she could not see anything and it was pitch dark all around. She was at a loss how to grope the way up the dark staircase. While she was still pondering what to do, she suddenly noticed a faint gleam glimmering in the darkness. Then she saw Ma, holding the candle, walked towards her. Ma was very brave. With the candle light, she had passed through the dark corridor, dragged her chubby body slowly down the stairs with each step.   The first time she got downstairs, she could not meet my sister.  Then she climbed 18 flights of stairs back home. The second time she got downstairs, she could meet my sister.  I was touched after I had heard this story. At that time, I was young and did not know how to care about my family. I should have already gone to bed and sank into a deep sleep.

Some time later, my sister brought that event up again.  However, Ma could not recollect.  For Ma, it was trivial round of every day. She took it as a matter of course.  She did not take it to heart!  For my sister, she is overwhelmed with deep gratitude whenever she recalls the memory of that night. In adversity, she can be inspired with hope and move on with optimism when she recalls the glimmering candle in the darkness. ”

Life was hard in the past. Parents worked very hard for their children. When their children had grown up, they might not have time to care about their parents in face of stresses and strains of living.  However, one day they might realize, what their parents had devoted would give them supports in encountering ups and downs in life.