85 Blessed Years

Today, 21 January 2010 is my grandmother's 85th birthday. Since 4 months ago, I had been planning on doing something special and meaningful for her. So last weekend, we travelled up to Penang to have an early surprise celebration for her.

Of course the easier option would be to have her come to KL and have dinner at some restaurant. But I decided it would be more meaningful if we all went back to Penang, where she is currently living and is most happy, to have a celebration with her friends.

We had the celebration after the MSF (Methodist Senior Fellowship) meeting on Saturday. I did a short sharing with Reuben doing a 'magic' trick for visual illustration, simultaneously.



My grandmother was pleasantly surprised. She had already suspected something was going on (even though I told her we were back to celebrate Joy's birthday) but did not at all suspect the sharing which she found very meaningful.

85 years is a long time to live. We're blessed that she is in very good health. Except for her limp (due to a hit-and-run-accident in 1991), she is free of illnesses. If you knew that she eats chicken skin and adds tonnes of sugar to her coffee and milo, you'll be surprised she is so healthy. Indeed, she does not have a hint of diabetes, hypertension, high cholestrol etc.

Because she loves cheesecake, I got her a huge very yummy trifle cheesecake for her birthday. It's 12" x 12", weighs about 5.5kg and costs RM150.

After we sang "Happy Birthday", she told everyone, with a huge smile on her face, "I love cheesecake!"

It's a pity I have never really lived with her to get to know her better. In fact, I never knew she liked pizza and satay until a few weeks ago! She's a small eater. So she completely surprised us when she downed a huge piece of pizza (besides other food) during our Christmas dinner and 13 sticks of satay at another dinner earlier this month. And all this while I thought she liked bread!

I thank God for a wonderful grandmother who is so faithful in her walk with the Lord. True to Deuteronomy 7:9, we are blessed because of her.

I also did a photobook for my grandmother as a birthday present. She absolutely loves it. The look of delight and surprise on her face as she flipped through the pages was worth all the time, effort and every sen of the RM84.80 that I spent on the book. Because she has been moaning about how she's lost all her precious old photos, I took the trouble to dig out what I could find (on my last trip back to Penang) and compile it into a photobook. I know she treasures this collection of photos dearly.

(Don't know why blogger rotates my photos...you'll have to rotate your head.)

She's bringing this book everywhere to show off to all her friends.

85 years summed up in 40 pages.

I'm happy to know that she's happy in her old age. Just last month, she told me she was glad that we remember and include her in our plans.

We live in the 21st century. Limited mobility is not a valid excuse to leave an old woman cooped up at home all the time.

She rarely gets to go out because of her limited mobility. So when she was staying with me in KL for 2 weeks over Christmas, I dedicated an entire morning to take her shopping. It meant leaving my own 2 kids at home so that I could push her in a wheelchair all over Midvalley Megamall.

Deutoronomy 5:16 says "Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you."

Blessed 85th Birthday Ah Mah!