Chapter 3 Ming's Dilemma

Many believe that our fate in life lies in the hand of God,if so why He had to be so cruel as to deprive a wonderful girl of good life?.Perhaps fate is cruel,if created by God He could changed its course at least make those sufferers lead a more decent living.Then of course those around her could help her made the difference,blessed those good Samaritans.Cursed those who took advantage of her and made her life miserable.

When as a young man I always considered those born with mentally impaired mind were the happiest people in the world.For I had seen many of them dancing and singing in the streets laughing at the world as they wandered about their normal life,without a care ,happy and joyfully enjoying the world rolled by.Their world were forever free from the sorrow of these world.

Mental disease is hereditary and passed on from generation to generation .But I have seen a difference in the town of Bentong,Pahang.This little town had a host of insane people.What surprises me were the fact that in this town there were always a madman around every time around town as if handed down .When such a person dies off or wandered away or maybe removed to those lunatic asylum these wonderfully happy insane people were replaced with another.

Many will want me to prove,well no problem, I can name you some.When I was first in Bentong in the 1963 there was a madman,a fat joyful Malay man from the Ketari Kampong.This joyful character could be be seen around town always,mind you cycling and many a times dancing along the main road.Another thing about him was he always dressed as though he was an officer holding a short stick and waving about.Whenever there be any parade he will be always in front of the parade as though he were the parade leader leading the parade.Surely a joy to watch and he provided much of the entertainment those days.

When he went missing he was replaced by an elderly Chinese in pajamas attire and sleeveless singlet.He talked to himself most of the time with many a times displaying his powess in "Kung Fu" with a long stick along the streets of Bentong.Of course there were a host of them.

Another sad case I need to tell was a bit of tragedy was that of of an insane woman,being driven off her home was bad sufficiently for her,but as she loitered aimlessly around town and slept at the only us Station in town ,some unscrupulous men,scavengers,odd job workers around and some taxi drivers who gave her a mere dollar or so or a packet of food took full advantage of her and made her pregnant.

What a shameful and indecent act.Against all human sense,raping an insane person making her pregnant without a single soul to admit their misdeed.Some how she was taken away by the welfare department and what a sad case.Man can be so cruel and whoever made her pregnant will have a child unknown to him a child born without a father,cursed be on that man who did this awful thing.

Here I would also like to heighten another story about a mad man in Sri Jaya,Maran,Pahnag.He was a young man,well built and ought to be tall and good looking but unfortunately insane.Well,for a start he was never a border to any one,he was just a plain and simple walker.He would walked miles and miles,north south east and west and repeat those process daily as per routine as if he was on a mission to some where known to him.

For food when hungry he could be found scavenging those rubbish dumps for food,just imagine consuming those dirty rotting food.Certain good Samaritan would always buy him a drink or packet of food on seeing such.At least there are good and kind souls around these days.

Good guys are hard to come by but bad ones are in abundance,these cowards moved around in groups ,for alone they are nothing,utterly useless .There was this group in Sri Jaya,Pahang who ill treated the insane man above.Having induced the insane with some food and drinks they of of mischief shaved small patches on his head.THe poor guy just sat there obediently to be made a fool of by them just for a mere packet of food and drink.

How awful and cruel human being can be.Come to think of it they should be the one who were insane.Have the no brothers or fathers,do they want others to apply their insanity on any of them?.They ought to be ashamed of themselves.However the sufferer did not suffer their insanity for long,for within the next few days or so some kind hearted man had the presence of mind to pay for his hair cut,saving him from further touting by all those concerned.

As I said before this insane man bore no hard feelings against any one and proceeded on what he was used to doing,walking long distances daily to find a solidarity where his soul shall dwelt happily forever,till thy Kingdom cometh.

No doubt about what I said about that such insane people were the happiest people in the world for the above stories were about some unfortunate souls floating around,many still do enjoyed a happy life style.but there are others who would point to me those inmates suffering in the hospitals and lunatic asylum.Their sufferings in the most deplorable conditions while there.

Having shared the above stories let us be directed towards the flight of poor Ming,having been diagnosed with that dreadful disease schizophrenia really devastated her as well as her family.Of course her case was hereditary and one of her young uncle is presently badly sicken by the disease and is being treated or rehabilitated at one of our lunatic asylum in the country and had been there for good ever since apparently.

However through the tender and warm of her family members especially her parents she did not have a terrible encounter with her sickness, her sickness was brief.At the time of her attack she was only sixteen years old,when she was full of life and enjoying it.She had just passed her Lower Certificate Examination with few distinctions and looking forward to perform well in the days to come.Unfortunately fate blew a cruel blow to her educational career when she was only months in form four.

Sickened with that dreadful disease she was forced to withdraw from her studies,her recovery there after was a slow process.Under good medication and tender care of her loving and determined parents she slowly recovered within a year or so,mostly staying at home.Had she been hospitalized her condition would not had improved so fast.


Of course there were times that she went into delusions letting a screaming or two out of no where.That really puts the poor patience parents out of their wits to quiet her or clam her down.Those were tough time for both parents but nevertheless they through their sheer determination and patience did keep her mind at peace. Only thing was it took them a lot of their time.Her parents were great and did a marvelous job .

MOst of time she would spent time sitting in a quiet corner thinking and day dreaming.Being able to dream away time I think did her a world of good,of course when her thoughts ran into beautiful scenarios her smiles were wide and beautiful,maybe she would laughed aloud as she expressed herself in happiness.

When her dreams ran into a sad sad scenes than her mood varies into a delusion her mood would changed to sadness and she indulged in deep sorrow thinking hard in search for an answer. Perhaps she would shed a tear or two,but not to worry as such were only wild wild dreams that had no truths whatsoever in them..No harm I suppose just a momentary passing of time,soon it be over.Those were passing moments which kept both parents in tense situations.

When it was first discovered that she had inherited her life seemingly shattered her life ,her dream to lead a normal life. Every thing ran hare wired,coupled with the state of illness she was sadly pushed to a corner.While on medication she dwelt in her self a lonely sad soul at a corner of her room.There was no others to console her but her parents and other siblings.Poor pitiful soul at so young and tender a age had to suffer thus.

Day in day out she would be left alone,with no one to understand her feelings.Well,of course her parents were there to look after her requirements and offering of tender care but her feelings within her was out of reach to all.Or should there be any there was no way she could expressed them out for all to understand her.Oh Lord why should so young a girl should suffer such torturous fate.

Not only her but many have suffered similar fate and their poor being alive were like hanging on to a thin thread.Yes ,all of them dependent heavily on drugs for their survival.Mind you much of such drugs administered unto them are expensive and sad to say many sufferers can ill afford them.

Ming is one very fortunate soul for she suffered her first attack she had her parents to care for her.Just imagine at about sixteen schizophrenia stuck her and her sickness was so bad that she had to be taken off from school.She was just in Form four.With a school certificate examination she was doomed with no future.Her recovery was definitely to be slow a process.

However initial importance was to treat her first, putting the education aside.Apparently she was never the aggressive type and remained pretty much to herself.Of course there were instances she would talk aloud to herself or let off an occasional screaming ,marveling good nothing others could understand.The tender and gentle care of both parents played an important role in her slow recovery.

Family members took turn to look after her,despite all odds they just did that.Her medications were prescribed by the General Hospital,Taiping,Perak.The medication kept her sickness under controlled although the whole process was rather very slow.
It was slow with a doubt but good for her,for she recovered fully to lead a more normal life.

It took her nearly a year to recover and by that time she was already too old to continue her education in Form four.Actually she was out of place with when they tried to put her in a class of younger students.She could hardly adapt herself among them so she gave it up at her personal free will.

Poor girl with only a Form three education where could she go?.For an ambitious young gal It was going to be hell.When she had recovered sufficiently her parents found her quite restless wandering around the house.Fearing that would aggravate her sickness and induce her to a relapse the had to find something to keep her occupied.

Without a better education she could go no where so they temporarily put her up as apprentice hair dresser with the hope that she could pick up that trade.Most important was to keep her busy or not allowed her mind to wander a strayed.She was not paid for that but instead her parents had to stump some cash to maintain her stay there.Well.they had high hope that she might learn at least a trade there whereby she could fend for herself in future.

She managed to cope up with what there were to offer for sometime although there was not much she could have learned. Her elder sister had better ideas.Sensing the younger sister precadiment she swiftly enrolled her younger sister in a private school so that her younger sister might have a better qualification.With that extra education she would have a better opportunity to secure a much better position else where.

So she was enrolled her into a private institution where many of the students were almost or older than her.Accordingly it was her sister who subsidized her her education fund.
Being a bright student as she always had been,she quickly adjusted and adapt herself well within.Thus she took the examination as a private candidate and not surprising she passed the examination with a reasonable good result despite being absence from schooling for such a long period. Yes,she never let her sister down.

Armed with that good result she began applying for jobs .sending application 3every where.Of course she was looking for something lucrative and to her fancy.
She saw the advertisement for Nurses and without hesitation submitted her application.She had always admired those donning uniform like Nurses so she never let off such golden opportunities.



To be continued with further details.

Chapter 2 Ming's Earlier Education

Her family shifted down to Taiping,Perak when she was about to attend standard one.Ming was then seven years old.She was enrolled into the Convent school there.Her father a teacher himself was transferred to Government fully aided school in Taiping.Prior to this he taught at the private Methodist School in Parit Buntar,

Taiping is actually the second largest town in Perak after Ipoh with a population of 191,104 (2007 census).It is known to be the wettest town in Peninsular Malaysia having an average rainfall of 4000 mm. while the rest of the Peninsular annual rainfall average between 2000 to 2500 mm.Its unusual heavy rainfall helped it to generate fertile collection of flora and century old rain trees in the Lake Garden.

In Taiping they lived in a rented bungalow in Kamunting.It was a house with a huge compound where the children could play in.Around that house were a couple of fruits trees such as rambutan,chiku,mangoes and papayas.Their father by then had brought themselves a car.A Japanese model,the first of the Toyotas-700 series.A very fragile car but can run economically well around town.It was outright the pride of the whole family.

Their father send them to school in the morning and for afternoon classes or lessons they had to go to school on their own or by bus.Everything went on smoothly during her primary education.She was a bright student throughout this period.The same was repeated while she through her first three years of secondary education.In fact she scored very good results for her form three examinations gaining a number of distinctions.

The wide compound offered much space for the mother to establish a large variety of vegetables for the family.There were little doubt that the mother was very green fingers in this field.On top of this she continued to breed a host of domesticated birds like chicken and ducks for the family's consumption.Rabbits were also bred around the house.

Ming thus grew up in a very condusive environment ,a bungalow with a large compound offered a lot of space to run about.The number of fruit trees surrounding the house also provided them much fruits the year round.Rambutan,sour sap,chikus and mangoes came with the house rented.Later some papayas were planted by her mother.Yes,those huge and juicy papayas,fruiting almost at ground level where the kids could even touched them as they played around them.

Ming was quite an active girl and always on the move around the house.While school she joined the Girl Guides movement and on numerous occasion joined them in camping normally around the scenic spots of the Lake Garden and oat least on Maxwell Hill.She claimed to have hiked up that hill resort for at least once and she had been there twice.With the Girl Guides she even had camped there once.

In school while as a teenager she had made an impact as a cook by cooking "Boo boo cha cha"for a school funfair at least once.By her cooking she made a hefty profit for the school fund fair,but to her dismay a teacher claimed that she was charging exobitantly.Was it that unfair?She was earning for the school fund and for a very good cause.Well,the teacher mistook her her kind gesture.

As a school girl she never kept close rapport among any friends and often moved around as a loner.In the evening she enjoyed jogging solo around the Lake Garden.Apparently her father would send her there and left her to jog on her own.He,however would be back to pick her up again sometime later normally after she had completed her round of jogging.

Later her brother with his "Ang Pow" savings brought a racing bicycle for himself but soon got tired of it and left it lying around the house.With that thing lying around she took the liberty to ride away with in the evening omitting the jogging and went joyfully cycling away in the Lake Garden.Well.she never was made to be a champion cyclist but she enjoyed every minute of her cycling while it lasted.

At home actually she was more closer to her brother who is two years younger than her where else the elder sister of his was four years older than her.Whatever it was blood is thicker than water so the sisters and brother were quite attached to each other.Coming to any problems she had it would be most likely with her younger sister and the elder sister beyond her reach,any way.

The family on the whole was a closely netted family with family members only five not a huge family but not too small to be called small.Of course there are relatives to reckon with.They are father's brothers and sisters and mothers 's siblings.They were all in close contact with the family.

Her late father was a keen fisherman often went fishing with his fishing buddies,fishing in either fresh water or in the sea.They were never dependent on the market for them.There were times when the fishing by the old man was excellent and fished in a good catch,more than they can consumed ,their mother skillfully turned them into salted fish with the assistance of our bright sunshine,of course.Their mother was a very resourceful woman,full of wits.

In school she was wholly fully committed in her studies and never had Any problems with her school studies.She mixed well with her class mates all through her studies but in reality she had no very buddy ones that was all.Not that she do not mixed well with others she made friends easily with her friendly attitude but never kept a closed rapport with any that was all.

She joined the school varies activities and was an active member of the Girl Guides Movement.Together with them she had attended all their camping, etc.including hiking up Maxwell Hill the hill resort of Taiping.While she was at that school she attended regularly their Church services and that was where her began to accept Christ as her Savior,however she was never baptized a Christian then.

There were no short comings until she passed her Lower Certificate Examination of which she scored extremely well with seven distinctions and was rewarded by the father heavily with money rewards of $ 50/= per distinction.Well she got a total of ringgit three hundred and fifty and the father happily paid her in full,making her very happy.

However her joy was short lived for as soon as she was promoted to form four the following year she unfortunately succumb to a dreadful disease.That disease sapped her future and took away her right to live a beautiful life which she ought to be entitled.Oh Lord,how can you be so cruel to such a nice little girl at such a tender a age.

In frustration her parents rushed through a series of medical checkup in both private and Government Hospitals only to confirm that she was struck by the dreadful disease namely Schizophrenia,a mental disease.With this confirmed she was thus forced to leave schooling at the prime of her years in schooling.

How could she attend school as she was emotionally having a split personality. She was talking to herself and exhibiting childlike behavior..Many a times talking and laughing or even cried out of the blue.That berserk behavior surely frightened her school mates and teachers alike.She had illusions of things and creaming about them.Worst of all having paying attentions in class,perhaps she was having hallucinations and seeing non existing things.


In sadness the family reluctantly withdrew her from school and pulled themselves together to kept her intact.This they did and extremely successful too.Neither did they kept her at the hospital where she be treated in isolation which could have adverse effects on so sick a child.They prefer to take of her at home where she could feel the warm of home.

Well accordingly they did comfortably well in caring for her,for within months she slowly and surely recovered.It was sheer determination of both parents where pain staking and duration of time with plenty of patient that she recovered slowly.But then she had lost plenty of time in schooling.That was why she only studied up to form four that also she did not complete.









to be continued.This is only a draft

Chapter 1 Reminiscence Of Her Childhood IN Parit Buntar

Schizophrenia? What is it? It is a disease that has plaque many,but can be controlled
by heavy sedation of drugs.Thus began my story rather a memoir of an innocent young girl struck by it.

In reality, she inherited it,an illness she never had expected and that partially destroyed her life.Despite her handicapped,almost left alone most of the time, she found the strength to survive through it in life.Her achievements ought to be applauded and be made known.The truth of the her story is astounding and beyond the doubtful minds of many.Shocking maybe yet it was the truth,

Her parents was caught in surprised, dumped founded by her sickness .They were were devastated by her illness.Both tried their level best as parents to provide her the tender and loving care so that she might lead a normal life as most child would.They have two other children,an elder daughter and a younger son.





Parit Buntar is the main town of the Krian district,on the north western tip of Perak and is bordered by the towns Bandar Bahru,Kedah and Nibong Tebal,Penang.Land mark of the town is the clock tower which was built in 1961 and officiating the opening was the late Prime Minister Tengku Abdul Rahman..

In 28th.April '67 a little girl was born.Her father was a teacher in an English medium school.She the second child in a family of three consisting of an elder sister who is four years older than her.After her two years younger was a brother.The family of five lived in Parit Buntar until she was going to school in Standard one.

Their house was a wooden hut constructed by the sides of "padi" fields,a serene and secluded environment.Life have been peaceful and happy for them.Sometimes the peaceful and safe atmosphere can be broken by occasional mishap.There was one incident which was embedded deep in her mind.According to her she,while a child about three, accidentally slipped into the irrigation canal - while trying to retrieve a lovely flower in it.It was a flower of the water lilies.

The water level was well over whelming over her when she felt in.Eminently she would had been drown had it not been for a "Pak Chik" living a stone's throw away saw her predicament as she fell.His kind gesture and good presence of mind, drove him fast sufficiently to run to the spot where she felt.She was immediately pulled out off the water by the leg that instantly.

Thus saving her timely from a watery grave.She thanked her lucky stars and the quick thinking of a fine old Malay man living in the nearby "kampong" for and this she treasured for life.The same old house is still in that "kampong"and she harbored plans of visiting it some day in the near future.

The good environment provided her family to breed quite a lot of domestic animals for own consumption.Her mother a housewife apparently did a fantastic job in the maintaining all these domesticated animals which provided them the source of proteins..She kept not chicken and ducks,she also bred some rabbits.As a child Ming would play with these domestic animals.

On one occasion she and her brother after viewing "western cowboys films" pretending as through they "cowboys: rode on two of her mother's bigger pet rabbit suffocating them as they dragged the rabbits by the ears.The angered mother on her returned gave both a good scolding as well sprankling.So that was her cowboy tales.

Bordering the house were a number of fruit trees which gave the family local fruits to consume.It was definitely beautiful when all food commodities were that easy to come by.The family had had not much to depend on the market for much of their food as vegetables were also planted by the mother as well.It was a wonderful kampong life style for them.The father's main income were only for the purchasing of important food such rice,sugar and others not grown in their garden.

They had a pet dog,given to them by a father's friend.A black color mongrel a very fierce dog which could easily keep all strangers away from that house.This was also their playmate most of the time as the neighbors were siding sparsely apart around.Small town the air was very good those days.

When she was about four to five years old she and her brother attended Kinder garden school there and transporting them to school was a rickshaw pedaled by an elderly Malay man.It was great fun then with five to six kids crammed within a single rickshaw.When it rained did Hell broke loose among them?Oh,no,never they were well covered and fortified by a thick canvas over them,so they wee never wet.

On a hot day the rickshaw would stopped by an ice water stall for the thirsty kids to purchase ice-balls.Yes,ice balls- strewed ice cut out by a plainer, rolled compactly into a ball the size of bigger than a tennis ball.Sprinkled over the ice ball were red dyed sugar plus also further decorated with some brown sugar or "gula Malacca".Brown sugar was actually coconut sugar extracted from "Todi".

The attractive ice ball were their favorites delicacy among children those days and it does not cost much,only five to ten cents each.That cheap- just imagined.these days the ice balls had lost its significance among kids. Modern materials like ice creams have over ruled them into oblivion and not one of our kids today had any idea what it were even if they were still around. Kids today will surely shunned them for better sweeter things to consumed than a chunk of sugared ice ball..

She was attending the Kinder garden when she was old sufficiently to do so.It was an English medium Kinder garden and the teacher she remembered was an Indian lady.It was easy for her then to pick up English.Her father taught English and spoke to them very often in it.Her mother although Chinese educated also spoke to them in English.

The rickshaw was the main source of cheap and easy transportation.Motor cars and lorries were also few and the roads never congested with traffic.Accidents therefore rare. Normal ly then people cycled about to and fro work and were the main transport around town.Her father owed a bicycle which he used it to cycle to school.

She also remembered an event in the days of 13th May '69 where as a child about three or so where she always like to sit with legs dangling out off the verandah when her her mother perceiving this shouted to her,You better come in fast or else some intruders on seeing you might sieged and slaughtered you".Well out of fear for the threat she quickly withdrew her legs and ran into the house.A small event she treasured of her young days.

Ever since her tender age as far as she could remember she had always celebrated her birthday every year without fail, with the mother preparing a nice bowl of "Mee Suah" a soft type of hand made noodles immersed in soup,coupled with two chicken eggs dyed red, specially for her only on that auspicious day,Her mother never forget that until her dying days.

Well.presently with her gone,she still carried on the practice by cooking them herself.Now that is something she long remembered within her.Certain happenings are hard to forget and able to remember and react those in remembrance of her wonderful mother is really admirable.May her mother be forever in her soul and mind.


The writing is incomplete,will be continued with more stories.