#139 That Grey Shirt

A reflection of my worn out emotions.

Dad says it is a sort of uniform we wore to granny's passing off/away ceremony. Sounds comforting doesn't it?

And yet even if I were to choose, I couldn't wear anything brighter; my mood then was as grey as the t-shirt.

And several times then, due to some unhappiness and incidental triggers, I found myself walking away from the wake, sitting alone; sometimes crying, sometimes just singing the emotions I had within me.

We have 7 or so of these t-shirts at home.

But in a twist, I feel that granny's passing gave my family something many families in the present era have either forsaken, or lost sight of;

Solidarity. What good is a family if its members are like strangers to each other?

And through the past few weeks as I was helping out at the restaurant I learnt from as well as about my dad many things. The more mundane ones to me are the daily operations and his plans to grow the business. The more intrinsic ones are my dad's motivations, stresses, reactions and most of all, his love.

I also became closer to him and trusted him a whole lot more than I did during the times where I have to admit I strayed in Polytechnic. It has always been drilled in me that there is wisdom in the language of the elders, and I believe that. Somehow, however, through the rush and buzz of daily life I lost track of that wisdom, and was left confused and in disarray.

Though today marks the end of my short tenure in the restaurant because of the restaurant's shift in location, here I stand a changed person for the good.

Today I stand grateful.