My Big Family

I am part of a big family. My big extended family on my father's side who came from a family of 9 siblings. I would best describe ourselves as a typical Asian family. When we get together, we eat, we joke, we laugh, we eat, we chat and eat some more and we're noisy!

We used to spend every Chinese New Year together. When I was little, before I went to Primary 1, my family would drive to Ipoh a couple of days before Chinese New Year. The cousins would play together and we'll sometimes stay until the 8th day of CNY to celebrate the Hokkien festival of "Bai Tee Kong". Lots of noisy fun and days after days of playing with my many cousins. Every CNY was in Ipoh without fail. Even the time when my father went into Hypoglycemia (his blood sugar went too low) the morning before we left for Ipoh. My father was diabetic and was on kidney dialysis. He had taken half a tablet of Daonil (that regulates blood sugar in diabetics), which was not his prescription drug. My father actually went into a coma but was revived in the hospital with a shot of glucose. He insisted on leaving the hospital so we could get back to Ipoh. On the way back to Ipoh, he went into a coma again near the Teluk Intan District Hospital. We could have lost him that night. To cut a long story short, he was revived and we proceeded back to Ipoh. My father's face lit up as soon as we arrived. He was so happy to see his siblings.

Now that we're all grown up, most of us are married with our own children. The "higher authorities" (parents, aunts and uncles), are growing old and some have passed on. Even so, we enjoy getting together especially during the Chinese New Year. Most of us do not really keep in touch throughout the year but when we get together, we pick up where we left off the last time we meet. I mentioned that we are typical Asians earlier 'coz most times we really do not know what each of us do, as in what profession we're in or how we are doing day to day. Tonight, some of us met up at a cousin's new place. He had just recently gotten married too. We were busy catching up, our children who meet each other at most twice a year were playing together as if they've been friends for life. I had a lot of fun meeting with my aunts, uncle and cousins again. I loved how the children played together so well. However, I can't help wondering how long this will go on? We made an effort to have family reunion at least once a year during the year end school holidays. Three to four days of being together. The last time we had a gathering, 53 family members were there and that was not the entire family yet. Last year, nobody volunteered to organize the Big Family Reunion so we didn't get together. I suppose what I'm trying to say is... we were a close family once upon a time. When my eldest uncle used to remind his siblings to be back for CNY reunion dinner. My father and his siblings made a lot of effort to keep in touch and to meet up for CNY even though my grandfather passed away in the 50's and my grandmother in the early 60's. My father and his siblings were very young themselves but they made the effort. My eldest uncle was the head cook with my mom and the aunts helping with the cooking. We still have lots of fun whenever we're together. However, nobody really want to make the effort to organize the reunion. How long more, cousins, before we go on living our own lives and "forget" to keep in touch?