JUST TO SHARE (Lau Tai Onn): Brief Account at Attendance at 4th Aunt’s Funeral in Menglembu, Ipoh on May 6 & 7, 2023

My 4^th aunt 四姑, the late Lau Siew Ying ( 刘秀英，my late father’s immediate younger sister) passed away on Thursday night, May 4, 2023 in Menglembu, Ipoh. She was 93 years old.

My youngest brother Patrick and youngest sister Winnie and her husband See Wah and I left KL to Ipoh from 2.35pm on Saturday, May 6, 2023, to attend her wake and funeral services. Winnie drove us to and fro using her car.

We had our dinner at Pusat Pengkalan Enam Enam (孟加兰66美食中心), Ipoh at about 5.50pm. We took 3 plates of noodles (大碌面，月光河 & 星洲米, total RM23) and Winnie also ordered steamed tilapia fish and eggs (三黄蛋). We also had tong sui dessert (鸡蛋雪耳龙眼糖水).

We reached Regrouping area, Menglembu, Ipoh at about 7.00pm and met many relatives. The wake service was carried out in Christian way as my late aunt had converted to Christianity in the her eighties. We stayed at the wake until 11.00pm.

We put up a night at Taman Meru Idaman condominium of the son of our 3^rd cousin brother 莫源坤.

R&R Tapah

Food court 66 Pengkalan

Tong shui

Arrival at Regrouping Area, Menglembu

A pose with my eldest cousin bro. 大表哥莫锦棠 (6 yrs older than me)

A pose with 2nd cousin bro. 二表哥莫锦辉 (4 yrs older than me)

Immediate relatives of late 4th aunt

Arrows show Patrick, Winnie and myself

Cousin bro. Kum Thong

Late 4th aunt survived by 4 sons.
4 位表哥, 左至右: 源坤 (born 1954), 锦棠 (born 1949), 锦辉 (born 1951), 仁栋 (born 1955)

My 4 cousin brothers and their spouses. (Eldest cousin is a bachelor)

Families of my 2nd cousin bro. 锦辉

Families of my late cousin sis. 润莲, survived by cousin bro-in-law 严以勒

Families of my 3rd cousin bro. 源坤

Condo. of Mok Wai Kit, son of 源坤

On Sunday May 7, 2023, we checked out at 8.00am and went for breakfast at Chooi Yue Dim Sum (翠月楼港式点心) at Taman Ipoh Selatan. This is very popular place for dim sum in Ipoh and there was already a long queue of customers in the early morning and we had to wait for about 1/2 hour before given a table at the 1^st floor.

Incidentally, I remember my 4^th cousin brother Yang Toong (莫仁栋) brought her mum (i.e. my late 4^th aunt) and his wife to treat my wife and I to a dim sum breakfast at this particular restaurant when we visited Ipoh many years ago.

For the record, we savored the following dim sum: steamed glutinous rice (糯米鸡, 2xRM6.20)，porridge ( 皮蛋瘦肉粥, RM5.00), steamed rice noodle with prawns (鲜虾猪肠粉, 3xRM6.00), shrimp dumpling (虾饺，2xRM7.20), siew mai (烧卖, 2xRM6.80), yam puff (芋,角 RM6.20), salad shrimp (沙拉虾, RM7.00), 1 pot of plain hot water (RM4.40). The taste of all the dim sum was really good and no wonder this restaurant is so popular. The total bill (12 nos. dim sum) including 6% tax RM4.863) came to RM85.85 and I footed the bill.

After breakfast, we proceeded to Sam Poh Tong (三宝洞) at Jalan Gopeng where we paid our respect to the urns of our late grandmother/father at the pagoda there at 9.45am.

We returned to Menglembu at 11.00am to withness the proceeding of the final funeral service of our late 4^th aunt.

At this juncture, our 4^th cousin brother Yang Thong showed us the original ROC’s immigrant registration cards (中华民国侨民证) of his late father (莫应琦) and mother (刘秀英) dated May, 1948. Our 3^rd cousin brother’s wife showed us the original marriage certificate of our late 4^th uncle and aunt (then aged 25 and 18 respectively) dated September 13, 1947. The above documents were so well kept by my late 4th aunt for such a long time as 76 years and should be preserved by her children/grandchildren as historical archives!

We witnessed the sending off of the hearse for cremation at Kek Look Seah, Jalan Bercham at 12.35pm and departed Menglembu.

We went to Ipoh town at 1.00pm and taken the fairly popular tau fu fah (奇峰豆腐花) and 3 sets of sha hor fun, white-cut chicken and sprouts at Restoran Tauge Ayam Ong Kee (安记芽菜鸡沙河粉). We ordered 3 sets only as I was not hungry and ate very little. Winnie footed the bill and it was about RM69.50 including 4 glasses of lime water.

After lunch, we went shopping at the many nearby local product shops. I bought a variety of biscuits such as kaya puffs (加央角, 10 pc for 12.00), salted egg yolk pastry (咸蛋酥, 2xRM4.00), Hor Ka Sai (虎咬狮. buy 3 packets free1 for 3xRM19.90) and a few others.

We left Ipoh at about 2.35pm. Traffic was okay. We reached Winnie’s apartment at Setapak, KL at 5.35pm where she dropped Partick and me off. Patrick drove back to Pandan Jaya at about 6.30pm. I took my car there and returned home at about 7.00pm, concluding our 2D1N journey to Menglembu, Ipoh.