Bee Gees On Mum’s Birthday

Bee Gees One Night Only DVD
Bee Gees One Night Only DVD cover.

If Mum were alive, she would turn 84 today. I do miss her a lot still. One of the odd things about her that struck me today was her fondness for Bee Gees. It all happened one day in the year 2000 when I played the Bee Gees One Night Only VCD. It was after lunch. She sat down and watched together with me.

Who would have expected my 75 year old mother becoming a fan of Bee Gees then? She did not complete her primary school education. She did not speak English and understood only basic greetings. She sat there watching. No words were exchanged between us. I could see that she thoroughly enjoyed the concert.

After lunch a few months later, she asked me to play the VCD again.

“Pang ha leh hor chiu eh hee lai kua.” (Play that show with the bearded man. She was referring to Barry Gibb.)

Another few months after that, she asked me to play the disc again. All in, we must have watched the show together at least five times. I am a big fan of Bee Gees too. I used to play Words, I Started A Joke, I O I O, Massachusetts and Too Much Heaven on the guitar in my teenage years. My all-time favourite song is definitely How Deep Is Your Love.

When I read the news about Maurice’s death, I told her that the guy with the hat had passed away. Maurice wore a hat throughout the entire concert. I played the VCD and we watched together, in silence. It was a wonder that we never got bored watching. Although Mum could not understand a word in the lyrics, she must have enjoyed Barry’s falsetto voice and the music of the group.

On one of the last few days of Mum’s life, when she had become unresponsive, I moved the hifi set to her room and played the disc – just the audio – and sat there listening with her. For an hour or so, I stopped grieving. It was as if we were watching the show like how we used to.

About a year ago, I bought the One Night Only DVD. Wuan and I have watched it together once. I have watched it alone a few more times. Truly, the music of Bee Gees has been a constant companion throughout my entire life. It was there when I was growing up. It was there when I was happy. It was there when I was sad. Today, in memory of Mum’s birthday, I am watching it again. I am sure Mum would not have wanted it any other way.

Exits – The Mystery Of Death

Victor Chin, Peter Tan and Wuan at there photo exhibition at KLPac

About one year ago, Victor Chin bandied around the idea of Wuan and I holding a joint photo exhibition with him. The theme would be about the death of our mothers. We both have posted entries about the death of our mothers in our blogs respectively. As timing would have it, KLPac (Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre) gave us a slot just right after our wedding banquet in Penang.

As Victor would be traveling up to Penang for the banquet too, we had to do some juggling with our deadline to ensure that everything for the exhibition were done before we leave Kuala Lumpur. In fact, Victor did most of the work in organising the photographs and then send them for post-processing, printing and finally to the framer for stretching the printouts.

When we got the frames hung up on Monday, Victor announced to us that we got an extension to run the exhibition until September 13. It was originally slated to end on August 30. Friends and readers of The Digital Awakening are invited to view the images at Pentas 2 Foyer of KLPac. It is opened to the public from 10am to 10pm daily.

Why did we chose to showcase our deceased mothers? This is something that we would like to share during walkabouts and open discussions with visitors on every Saturday and Sunday (22, 23, 29 & 30 August and 5, 6, 12 & 13 September) from 2pm to 4pm. Do drop by.

The Star also ran an article on this exhibition titled “Pictures that speak a thousand words” in StarMetro yesterday (August 18, 2009).

Leaftlet of Exits - The Mystery of Death

In Memoriam – Mum’s Sixth Death Anniversary

Six years. I think I need to move on now, Ma. I know this is what you would want me to do. I am not going to mourn for you anymore. I am going to celebrate life instead – celebrate the life that you had given me. Yes, that is how I will honour the memory of you. I want to have happy thoughts whenever I think of you. This I will do. Six years on, I think I have learnt a little more about death and life, and why we should celebrate life instead of mourning death. Rest in peace Ma. Till we meet again.