A Tale of Paternal Love and Sacrifices

Tin Jing Jie

What is your definition of a loving father? Is he someone who works hard to provide for the family, or simply a person who cheers you up when you are down?

No, a loving father is more than just that. A loving father is someone who gives his life unreservedly to his loved ones and takes great joy in witnessing his children's accomplishments. A loving father sacrifices himself for the sake of his children and loved ones in order to give them the best opportunities in life. Uncle Khoo (who declined to give his full name) is an epitome of a selfless and sacrificing father.

Having worked as a cobbler at the recently renovated Chinatown Food Centre since the 1960s, 78–year-old Mr Khoo has known nothing else but work. As I watched Uncle Khoo hammering away at the tiny scrap of metal, sweat drops cascaded down his sunken cheeks and landed on the white shirt that he was wearing. Old Mr Khoo only paused to rest when his task was complete. Thereafter, it was back to work for him, who has to labour from the wee hours of the morning until late at night in order to carve out a living for his family.

All Mr Khoo had ever wanted was to give his children a head start in life and provide the best opportunities that he could offer. Day in, day out, Mr Khoo toiled laboriously just to earn that little extra bit of money for his family and try his utmost to give his children the best that he could give them. Sometimes, Mr Khoo himself would go hungry, just to make sure that his children could have three proper meals a day. To Mr Khoo, going hungry for a day was nothing compared to the cries of joy and laughter he witnessed whenever his children saw the plates of bee hoon in their father's hands.

Even now as old Mr Khoo approached his late 70s, he chose to continue to work as a cobbler. As his children do not earn much, he does not want to burden them with the giving of monthly allowances. So he gave up the notion of retirement and continued working to earn his own keep. After all these years, he is still making sacrifices for his children whom he loves a lot. His gift to his children cannot be measured in monetary terms, for it is goes beyond the tangible. It is a gift of fatherly love.

Upon further reflection, we realised that there was much more to being a loving father than just providing for his family. A loving father goes beyond merely understanding the plight of his children to helping ease their burdens. Mr Khoo did just that. His love for his children moved us to tears and we could see through the sparkle in his eyes when he talked about them the deep love he has for them. Mr Khoo really touched our hearts that day, truly redefining the meaning of a loving father.

Tin Jing Jie is a Secondary 2 student from Hwa Chong Institution.

The views expressed by the author represent the opinions of the author and not those of the staff and management of the Centre For Seniors.