A woman was born in 1932 and she was the third child of 12 children in the family. She lived in Sidikalang, Indonesia.
At her teenage years, she had to take up the responsibilities of her siblings and the business of the family, cos her parents were advance in age and the 2 elder sisters have married off. She woke up early in the morning to cook for the family and prepare the ingredients for the food biz that the family survived on. At that time, her parents were very conservative and would not allow her to study, but when her siblings were growing up, her parents realised the importance of studying and sent them to school, but she have already passed the age of studying, but she never complaint. She helped all her siblings and ensure that they studied hard and grow up to be useful people. She remain unmarried till the age of 40 when all her siblings were grown up and married.
She came to Singapore alone at the age of 40, married to a man she never met. This man was the eldest in the family, who was a school gardener, they both worked hard to support the family. Soon, they had a baby girl.
One year later,one night the man woke in the middle of the night for a drink and had a little chat with his mum and went back to sleep. when morning came, the woman tried to wake to her husband to work, she realised that he has no heartbeat and laying there cold and motionless...The man had passed on in his sleep.
The woman now left with the baby gal and she could not hold on the dependent pass since her husband had passed on and she had not gotten her PR in Singapore. She did not know what to do. She had to stay in Singapore cos she need to take care of her little gal. She had no choice, but applied for work permit as a servant so that she could stayed in Singapore, not knowing that by doing that she could not become a Singaporean.
For the next 16 years, she always had to fight for her stay in Singapore so that she can take care of the little gal. She did not leave the country at all for the 16 years, even when her own mother passed on, she could only cry and could not do anything.
When the gal was 16, the authority could no longer give the woman the grant to stay in Singapore. They did not know what to do. A miracle happened, at that time the authority opened up for foreigners to mirgrate to Singapore. The woman engaged a lawyer told her her story and the lawyer fighted for her and finally the woman got her PR. That year for the first time the whole family travelled to Malaysia for holiday. Few years later, the woman got her citizenship in Singapore. She is happily remarried, she helped her new husband in his biz and the new husband dotes her daughter.
Her life has not been smooth, but she is a strong woman that never gives up. She is none other than my mum, Mdm Juliawati....