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A Birthday To Remember
By Ng Su-Ann, The Star Online
Penang, Malaysia
May 24, 2004
Aishah
(centre) posing with her relatives during the birthday feast at her daughter's home in Penang yesterday.
Malaysia, Penang: It was a birthday to remember for retired English teacher Aishah Abdul Rahman as her five surviving siblings were there to share it with her for the first time after being apart for over 60 years.
The grandmother of nine, who turned 66 yesterday, was two weeks old when she was given away by her Chinese parents in Bukit Mertajam to her Malay adoptive parents.
"I thought I was an only child all these years but now I discover I have three surviving brothers and two sisters.
"When we were reunited a week ago, we could not stop crying and hugging each other. My handkerchief was soaking and I had to use tissue paper,"
Aishah said in between tears during the feast at her daughter's home in Taman Sri Nibong.
About 80 of her relatives from Bukit Mertajam arrived in a 60-seater school bus and several cars to share her joy.
"Although my marriage and my children's marriages were happy moments in my life, this is the best of all.
"I feel so much joy and sadness at the same time because although I am happy to be reunited with my birth family, I will always treasure my adoptive parents who had loved me unconditionally," she said, adding that her adoptive mother was also a Chinese adopted by a Malay couple.
Her son, Norhazi Ismail, 40, said although his mother, whose birth name is Tan Ah Lik, always wanted to find her real parents, she did not do so for fear of hurting her adoptive parents' feelings.
"My grandfather, Abdul Rahman Abdul Rahim, was a land surveyor who went missing during the Second World War in 1941 while my grandmother, Hajjah Puteh Darus, died in 1993.
"My grandmother kept my mother's birth certificate containing her birth parents' address which we recently found," he said.
Aishah's relative, Haji Omar Kassim, 58, a retired post office supervisor in Bukit Mertajam, traced the address with help from his former colleagues.
"I went in search of the address on my motorcycle. Luckily, one of Aishah's sisters was still staying in the house and I told her the good news," he said.
Aishah's youngest brother, Tan Tee Huat, said: "My father (Ah Lai) and Aishah's adoptive father were close friends. As the latter did not have any children and had always wished for a child, my father gave Aishah to him. As he was a poor farmer, the adoption helped lighten the financial burden."
He said two of his brothers, Siam Weng and Bak Chooi, had passed away while the remaining siblings were Siam Hong, 76, Siam Heng, 74, Siam Eng, 69 and Peng Hwa, 63.
He said his late parents wanted to look for Aishah but had lost contact with her adoptive parents who had moved to Balik Pulau.
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