I am the middle child of a family of 10 children. Alongside me are 3 other sisters and 5 brothers, and together we used to stay in an attap house near Hougang. During my younger days, life was difficult and living conditions were a lot more backward than how it is now. Education was exclusive to boys and my sisters and I were required to stay at home to do the household chores. Talking to boys was forbidden, though I was fortunate enough to have been introduced to my husband through my second brother. I was then allowed to go out on movie dates with my mother’s permission. At the age of eighteen, I married my husband. He was filial and a family man who was always willing to share family responsibilities together with me. When I was busy, he would offer to look after the children and do the dishes. This is not typical of most married man during that era, who were more machismo and I became the envy of many others. In 1955, I moved to a kampung located near Telok Ayer and have stayed in this area since. Telok Ayer looked vastly different then from how it is now. Water houses built on stilts that were above mud used to occupy the area. The houses were made of wood and covered with zinc roofs, which made the houses really warm in the day. Due to this, the children had to remain at the bottom storey of the house and play there. The houses were built in a haphazard way and people could add extensions to their houses at their own discretion. This could be done if you had relations with people who held power and was willing to offer bribes to them. If there wasn’t enough space to fit the family, a second level could be built for children to sleep on. It wasn’t as safe and burglaries was not uncommon; neighbours were “greedy” and would steal your belongings if they thought what you had was valuable. The lack of security of kampung houses was partly to blame for this. Some kampung houses did not have front doors, and even if they did, the locks that were used could easily be broken. It was unfortunate if you had bad neighbours, some of whom would throw faeces at your house, or jam your locks with matchsticks, preventing you from entering your own house. However, I had nice neighbours too who would come over to keep a lookout when I had a visitor but I wasn’t home. I guess it can be considered rather ironic that despite my parents’ distaste for vanity, I ended up setting up a beauty shop at Rochor Road. Many women flocked to my shop to purchase imported, branded makeup products and business was steady. However as I aged during these past few decades, I have noticed that women in the past were less obsessed about their appearances as compared to women nowadays. We did not need to conduct so many rituals or buy countless products in an attempt to preserve our youth. All we needed was some good old Rella perfume or rosewater, some lipstick to brighten our pout, and black hair dye to conceal our greying hair and we were good to go. Though I may be the owner of a beauty shop, I remain largely unaffected by many of the superficial views that people may have. Perhaps I can thank my parents for instilling in me the value of humility, which helps to further reinforce my belief that people should age with grace and dignity. I am now in my early 80s and am proud of my head full of white hair. I am quite grateful for the life I have now, living in a comfortable studio apartment with neighbours around that I am close to. I go down to the community centre every day with my neighbours and we attend singing classes there. We have taken part in quite a few competitions, and I was very happy when I won second place for singing 《我是一只画眉鸟》. Actually, I much prefer life now - the air is fresh, the standard of living has improved, and life is a lot more convenient. Under my block of flats, there are coffee shops and utility shops where I can get whatever I need. Besides, my children have good jobs as well as their own families, and I am happy for them. They are very caring towards me and want me to live with them, but I don’t want to be a hassle for them. Anyway, I prefer the freedom I get from living alone. However, I do consider family to be an important part of my life and try to provide for them where possible. Whenever my children need money, I give it to them, since I don’t really have much use for it. They use it to buy things they like, and as long as they are happy, I am too. Although I am already quite elderly, I still try to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I don't eat extravagantly, or consume food that is too oily or full of preservatives. I also exercise regularly to keep myself fit. As a way to pass the time, I have become involved in community work, helping to distribute food to the poorer elderly in the neighbourhood. Actually, I feel that we should not spend so much money donating food to the elderly since most of us don’t really need to eat much anyway, and the extra food would only be wasted. The money could be better spent building more schools for the younger generation, or helping the needy. In general, I feel that as long as you're healthy, it's alright to live a few years longer, because there are still things you can do in your lifetime. However, when you’re too ill to move already, it would be best for both the elderly person and the children to just let the parent go. Written by: Emily Rachman, Neo Siao Eng, Kym and Tan Jia Min From: Nanyang Girls' High school