An old lady’s story / 一个老妇人的爱恨情仇

This old lady was the mother of my friend’s sister-in-law. She was also stricken by cancer around the same time as mama. But she was not as lucky as mama. She passed away last month.
She was born into a rich family with many siblings. Her parents had a jewelry shop before the Communist Party came to power. But it was not a good thing to be born into a rich family in China at that time as China was under Communist rule. Not only had all of their fortune been confiscated, but it also affected her marriage. Her husband left her when the Cultural Revolution had started.
Since their only daughter was under her care, the flat in which they still lived in was also left to her. She remarried after the end of the Cultural Revolution. They continued to live in that flat for many years. Her daughter had her own flat after she got married. After having learned a lesson from her own marriage failure, she suggested to her daughter."It’s better to put your flat under my name, so that if anything should happen to your marriage, at least you will still have the flat to fall back on."
A few years back, something odd happened. During her sleep, her second husband forged a thumb print on a document which stated that the old lady agreed to transfer the flat they were living in to him. After finding out she became angry and constantly argued with her husband until the man couldn’t take it any more, he moved out.
She was diagnosed with liver cancer at the end of 2007. Her daughter suggested that she divorce him. “At least you can get half of the property if you do so.” She refused. “That flat is mine. Even if I die, I must die inside. I won’t allow anybody lay his finger on it.” Last Sept, her condition worsened. Her granddaughter, who was studying in Australia, came back to see her for the last time. “Grandma, It’s better to divorce him as soon as possible. There’s already no hope. This man will never apologize.” “Not the time yet.” She said as usual. Last December, noticing that she's getting weaker, her daughter drafted a document (written by her daughter and not a legal document) proposing to divorce and brought it to the old man. Without any hesitation, the old man signed. When she came back and told this to her mother, suddenly the old woman suffered an internal organ haemorrhage and started vomiting blood. She was immediately admitted to ICU, where she struggled for one week. In the end, she succumbed to her death.
The daughter had brought her back just before she had passed away. Many areas in the flat were stained with this poor old woman’s blood, as if telling other people of her miserable story. After she died, a traditional Chinese wake was held at the flat. The old man refused to attend her funeral even though he was informed. As they had not legally divorced before she passed away, the old man is still considered as her spouse. This flat should belong to him by law. This is why the daughter had been trying to resolve the situation herself. If the old man and his sons come back to demand this flat, it would be difficult for them to sell as people will come to know that the old woman died inside miserably. Her soul wouldn’t be in peace. She would come back to haunt the house. As the father and sons are guilty in their hearts, they wouldn’t dare to live inside themselves. But they know that the market value is almost RMB 1m, and they won’t give up so easily.
As I mentioned before, the daughter's own flat remains under her mother’s name. By law, the first person to inherit will always be the spouse and not the daughter. The poor lady became depressed after just one week in her mother’s flat and now she’s worrying what if the old man and his sons will also be after her own flat. She won’t have any place to stay.
No one knows why this old lady always refused to divorce her husband. She always accused him but when she came to sign the document, she would always say, "it's still not time yet. " The daughter now blamed her for creating so much trouble. My friend told me that maybe it was because she had still loved the man and was hoping for him to come back to her. If this is true, I guess she was the most stupid woman in this world. Maybe she had some other strategy in mind at the time? It is now a mystery since her passing away. She has taken it with her to her grave.

Jer's Story / Jer 的故事

Jer was my student. He graduated 2 and half years ago. Since then we lost touch. Last week, another of my ex-student K came to see me. He said he would like too arrange a small gathering among the graduated students. The night after, 5 of us went to Farm Art at Choa Chu Kang to have a drink. I immediately recognised Jer and 艳. The other girl was a bit quiet. We talked for a while. I asked 艳 whom this girl was:"Is your friend also graduated from our school?" "What? you forgot her? She's 露. She came specially to see you, you know?" Ah, right. 露. She looked a bit different. She used to put lots of makeup, but that night she was totally plain. She's wearing spectacles instead of contact lenses also. That made a lot of difference. Besides, 2 and half year isn't a short time.
While drinking, they told me Jer was cheated by a girl. Jer is nice, honest and simple person, sort of gullible. He thought the girl had special feeling for him. After getting lots of presents like laptop, mobile phone and so on, the girl refused to be with him.

香's story / 香的故事

香 came to Singapore to learn English last year. In Dec, she met her boy friend in a night club. She loved the man so much. She discussed with 智 who married a Singaporean Chinese about the marrage between Chinese and Japanese. Like how to adapt to the culture and food, whether she needs to change her family name and so on. Her visa was expired this April. As a result, she needs to go back to Japan. She planned to find a job here so that she could stay here forever. But that did not work out as she dreamed. We lost contact since then. Recently, ゆ told me she received email from 香。She was upset and was unwell for quite some time. The man did not contact her since she went back, let alone her marrage. ゆ said she was cheated. The man was not serious right from the beginning. I met him once as well. I think he is just an average Singaporean, not so good, not that bad. Maybe after she left he really cooled down and thought one more time. They could not communicate well, 香's English is yet to develop, and he can not speak Japanese at all. Their culture background is also differnt. Or maybe his job is in trouble like many others, anyway now the economy is bad. Many people lost their jobs. So he has no mood to contact her? As a matured man, he probably realised this kind of marrage won't last long. But he should clearly explain that to her, so that she could get herself prepared. Anyway, this is the lesson she needs to learn.

香去年来新学习英文，年底时在夜总会认识了她的前男友，那时候，她非常开心，她常常与智憧憬着她未来的婚姻生活，到底日本人嫁来新加坡会是怎样的？是不是也需要改名字呢？随着今年四月她的签证到期，她回到日本后我们便失去了联络。前两天，我忽然从ゆ那里重新听到了有关她的消息，原来她回到日本后，那男的就不再联络她了，失恋后的她大病了一场，最近才刚刚从阴影中走出来。ゆ说那男的是个骗子，从一开始就没认真过。我倒不那么觉得，我认为那男的很普通，即不怎么好，也没那么坏，也许在她离开后他忽然清醒了过来，认识到这种语言不通，文化背景不同的婚姻应该很难维持吧。再说香是个典型的大小姐，家事一概做不来；抑或是那男的在经济风暴中丢失了工作，没有心情在联络了？只是作为一个熟男，怎样也该去封信把情况讲清楚才是嘛。不过这给香上了很好的一课，她会变得更加成熟，明白其实改不改名字这些都不重要，重要的是两个人能过合得来，毕竟婚姻不只是小资的浪漫童话嘛。