I had wanted to write this tribute to my wife for the longest time but a recent incident and experience by my friends - Josh and Cat set my resolve to get this started. Thank you to you both but my biggest best wishes to both of you to stay strong and in good faith - never give up.
I met my wife - Adeline when she was a junior staff at SPH and I was a rookie Circulation Rep more than a decade ago. We started connecting thru sports activities cause as a rookie, you are always arrowed to take part in such departmental competitions, so thru such activities our relationship blossomed. Day by day, with the fetching and sending to and fro work and also for her part time studies in MIS at Clementi, it finally became time for us to tie the knot and like many typical Singaporeans, we applied for a HDB flat in Punggol but she was very against it as Punggol was undeveloped then. So it was a resale flat in Tampines as our first choice of a flat in McNair Rd was too expensive. To be frank, we wasn't well off then nonetheless we got our present flat at $358K with a mere $6K COV and there were minimal reno needed. In fact, we didn't even take any housing loan for fear of burdening ourselves with the repayment. So we repainted, rewired, washed the flat and with some new furnitures like the bed and cabinets and some essential appliances, we finally moved in. I still remembered that the appliances were actaully reject items from LG thru referral from a fellow colleague, it was a real bargain and boy, those appliances are still serving us well till now. Wifey was very skeptical then, lolz.
During the planning and purchasing process, wifey and I often fought and had differences in opinions and often our ex-colleague and pal - Jennifer was always sandwiched in between. Even so when we were planning for our wedding. I remembered vividly our wedding and honeymoon very much as I was teaching driving like close to 35hrs per week just to save enough for our wedding expenses and honeymoon. During those times, Ad was very understanding and she didn't grumble that I didn't spend enough time with her as my lessons were literally everyday. Well, she did contribute her fair share with her mahjong earnings too (haha).
Eventually, we managed to scrape thru with a banquet of over 40plus tables at Mandarin Hotel and a honeymoon in London and Paris. However the last leg of the return trip was disatrous cause the return airticket from Bangkok to Singapore had a wrong date. We waited in the airport for more than 15 hrs, with a swollen foot, Ad was ever so consoling and stick by me all the way. In the end, we managed to catch the last flight back to SIN and our very first Business Class flight. What a way to end a honeymoon huh.
Throughout the years, Ad had been a busy working wife with her event management duties with SPH and it can get crazy over weekends and I tried my best to be her driver and helper during those days. Grumble I did but it was fun too helping alongside with her and that's why I fell in love with not only my wife more but also with event management that change my future career path. Despite all the bad over my ten years in SPH and bad mouthing by other colleagues and even supervisors at work, I must really hand it to Ad, she was never affected and even stood by me even more as she believed in me totally. So when our kiddo - Ashton was born, she supported my decision to leave SPH and venture out. Many called me nutz! as I forego a almost 5 figure bonus and went on to something new.
I guess having her support and Ashton spur me on more, I was depressed to leave SPH as the job has taught me many things, given me a loving wife, a diploma and degree but it is the routine which I will badly missed. The beauty of going to work with my wife and seeing her everyday at work. After leaving SPH, we didn't looked back and thru some of my ups and downs in my career, she stood by me with Ashton.
As a wife and mother, I always felt that she is very forgetful, too nice to others, not street smart and even over pampering our kiddo. But despite all these, she is still my lovely wife and that's what so simple about her. She doesn't do any cooking or housework thus that became my ECAs. Haha. As for Ashton, we have the luxury of him being taken care of my parents on weekdays and Ad's parents on weekends. Life was actually quite simple for us, whatever I don't do - like playing mahjong, watching soccer, eating veggies, loving chillis, controlling my temper, being nice to others, she does it better than me. Perhaps that's why I adore her so much. She completed me in her own little ways.
Our biggest test to our relationship started around the end of last year when I suffered a relapse of my LGL blood disorder condition. I had this condition for more than 12 years already eversince I joined SPH, we had talked about it then but had never thought the condition would worsen so suddenly. Despite all that, we faced it head on, the weekly blood transfusion, in and out of hospital and worrying of death. So when it was time for me to go for my bone marrow transplant, I immediately planned for the worst, being the pessimist that I am. The 1st attempt failed and mentally I was sufferring and lucky for me, my 2nd brother's marrow was a matched. During my 2 months stay in the hospital both she and mum took turns to visit me during lunch or dinner to at least kept me company, even when she wasn't there she would still call my room or sent me words of encouragement via SMS. I'm sorry that during those times of fustrations, I yelled at her but she always greeted me back with a smile.
I guessed, during those times, she had to learn many new things like taking care of the household bills, pay for the car maintenance, start to drive the car, doing the housework, taking care of Ashton and juggle between her work. She never grumbled, hard it was on her and I am damn proud of her to be able to accomplished all that out of her comfort zone. Till today though I still says that if she were my driving school student I would had vomitted blood, yet it nice to have her drive me around sometimes. Despite it all, she still refused to open a internet banking account lor.
Last year and this year had been trying times for us as we had made big changes and sacrifices. We had to digged into our savings to pay off my massive hospital bills, daily expenses, downgrade to a smaller car, quit my job, stayed indoor and frequent the hospital. Despite all these, it made our relationship stronger and also our love for each other thus we planned to have a 2nd child despite all circumstances. She probably ain't the perfect wife but she does it well in her own way and neither am I the perfect husband too. However, we do compliment each other especially when disciplining our son and tackling issues in our lives thus it made us stronger.
Currently, thanks to her support, I'm doing much better with my medical condition and have learnt to take on life in a new perspective with her help. She enthrusted me back with many of the duties but she still help out much more than before. I've also started working in a charity organisation though the remuneration aren't as good as before but we are much happier with the regular hours, simpler life and also a means for us to return back to the less fortunate in my line of work. So am I a better person now if you ask me, my answer is: My wife - Adeline will always be a better person than I am and I'm still trying to be as good as she is.
Life is full of ups and down and it makes it all worthwhile when you have a lifelong partner by your side all the way. For that, my dearest wife - Adeline, I love you just the way you are. Thanks for being my loving wife and our son's doting mother. We're so blessed to have you in our lives. :)
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