Dear Grandma,

I have been your grandson for 14 years, your love for me wins over my heart many times, and at times I see you in fact as close as my mother. You were a great cook, a skilled chef, a hardworking housewife who took care of your three daughters, one even went into university.

Grandma, you always loved me to the core, ever since I was born, you moved from my cousin’s house to start taking care of me. You doted upon me, and took me through my toddler years.

You are a conservative grandmother, who speaks Cantonese dialect with a bit of Chinese, and being close to you for these years, I could speak the dialect well better than my own father’s Hainanese Dialect.

I remember, that I was picky when eating food, only favourite things were Char Siew Rice and Fish and Chips (which still remains this day.) and somehow refusing to eat other things. In order to let me eat the other food like noodles, you coerced me with money and somehow I started to be less pickier about my food. All credit goes to you.

Grandma, you would ask me about what happened in school and I would share all my joys and troubles that happened in school, you would teach me how to cook your favourite dishes, you would teach me how to grow the plants in your garden, sometimes while spraying water into the plants, we would even play a “gunfight” of water. Those were the good days.

Grandma, as the years go by, we grow older, your cancer had a relapse, you suffered under the painful side effects of chemotherapy, you became more frail and weak and one time admitted to hospital, While me, being trapped under piles and piles of homework and projects.

I wonder as the years go by, we start to have a generation gap, I broke your loving heart at times, and we had lesser time to talk to each other. But still, grandma, even if times have changed, my great love for you has never ever changed.

You are now having an afternoon nap, while me typing out this letter, as the old song “IF” by Bread goes, “If a picture paints a thousand words.”

The picture that will represent our grandmother-grandson love, would be the picture of me in Japan, at the spring season walking down the streets, enjoying the spring breeze and appreciate the blooming beautiful sakuras.