Television sets are special to the writer’s grandfather Baharon Ali, seen here with granddaughter Haney Falisya, as they remind him of his late wife Rosiah Abdullah.  He cherishes a Toshiba set that he carted home in 2003 for her.  ST Photo:  Ng Sor Luan.

[Source:  The Straits Times, 29 October 2011]

By

Hanis Sofea Abdul Rauff

Hanis Sofea Abdul Rauff, 14, is a Secondary 2 student at Christ Church Secondary.  She wins $300 in shopping vouchers and a JVC Digital Videocam GZ-MS120S.

Many in our family regard the outdated Toshiba TV set stashed in the store-room of my aunt’s Sembawang flat as a piece of junk, but not my maternal grandfather Baharom Ali, 76.

It is special, reminding him of his abiding love for his late wife Rosiah Abdullah.

Theirs was a love marriage, celebrated in 1960, when she was 16 and he 24.

Grandma was a Chinese convert whose foster family were neighbours.  That was how they met and fell in love.

After they wed, Grandma, while doing her chores, would follow the broadcasts of popular Malay and Chinese soaps on the radio in the 1960s.  She wished she could watch the shows on television but Grandpa was a brick maker of modest means who had to provide for his wife and seven children.

He had to work even harder in the 1970s as the family upgraded from a rented room to a one-room flat that he bought in Kallang Bahru.

Grandma fell critically ill with kidney and heart problems in the late 1990s and Grandpa now had the added burden of his wife’s expensive medical treatment.

He decided to take on an extra job as a construction workder to make ends meet.  Eventually, he bought a tiny TV but always wanted a better set for her.

Then came the fateful day in 2003 when his boss at the construction site received a call informing him that Grandma was dying.

As Grandpa was rushing home, he spotted a decent, discarded Toshiba TV set near their flat.  Without a second thought, he carried it home, hoping to show his wife that he had fulfilled her wish, but it was too late.  She was 59.

Until today, Grandpa, who is now a school cleaner, blames himself for not being at his wife’s deathbed.

I am proud of him though.  To me, the TV set, which no longer works, shows the extent he would go for a loved one.  And I am sure Grandma knows how deeply he loves her still.