My father doesn't recall a lot about his dad as he passed before my dad was 5 years old. My grandma passed not much later when my dad was 9 or so and my dad ended up being raised by his older sister until he hit 12 or so, after which he was bought a ticket to Hong Kong, from China, to make a life for himself. Needless to say, my dad is my hero as he learned to read and write in both English and Chinese and managed to immigrate to Alberta all from essentially nothing. Not much I can whine about to a dad who's been through all of that, though I've tried!
My grandma from my mom's side was a homemaker which is a hard enough task for any mother, but my grandma raised 12 children!! I was super close to her before she passed. My grandpa on my mom's side was a doctor who practiced Chinese medicine and the stories I've heard from my mom and her 11 brothers and sisters indicate that my grandpa was the doctor to many actors, politicians and famous people in Hong Kong. When I was old enough to visit Hong Kong, my grandpa had already retired, but would still see select patients out of his home where I'd stay anytime I visited Hong Kong. Used to love sitting in the living room pretending to be doing something else, while listening to my grandpa speak to his patients and then watching him carefully weigh out his prescription of various herbs and ingredients before wrapping them in some sort of special white, wax paper and then listening to the sound of his abacus as he calculated the patient's bill.
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