She has a long name starting with the letter A. More affectionately known as ‘Alola’ (pronoun Ah-Low-Lah), she is introduced into my household from 1988 to 1990 to allow my mother to continue working after the birth of my sister.
Being a mother herself, she seems to empathize with my mother and stride to do her best in her job. Cooking, cleaning, washing, babysitting…. There seems to be nothing she cannot or would not do for my family. On top of these duties, she had to deal with my brother and I who sometimes gave ‘maid abuser’ new meanings. Of course, those silly things we did were nowhere near what we see in the news, but it can be heart-breaking for someone who has to be separated from her children by thousands of miles to make a better living. Although my family is not too well-to-do, her wage rate is considered slightly higher than the market rate and there is no lack of benefits-in-kind which aim to save her more money.
Things which I took for granted yesteryears are now becoming question marks above my head. Come to think of it, I have never seen Alola on a pair of shorts or jeans. At work or in her sleep, she is always wearing dress. That may be a tool to limit herself: Alola thinks, “If I have to wear shorts to perform a task, then that task is possibly dangerous and I should not do it for the love of my family.” Her love for her family is extremely evident. She can also be considered the vainest of maids. Every night before she goes to sleep, she would tie up her hair in knots nicely as if she is meeting someone in her dreams. Yes, other than letters and occasional cassette recordings, dreams bring her back to her hometown. It is however worth mentioning that having seen a few of her Sri Lankan counterparts and even comparing her with Indian women in Singapore, she is quite beautiful.
She only telephoned us once 4 or 5 years after her stint with us ended. She was probably working for another Singaporean family. Ever since, there is no news of her, even though our telephone number is not changed. Once in a blue moon, I do think of her. More recently, she came to my mind when I arranged my stamps collection into new and bigger albums. All the stamps from Sri Lanka in the collection are contributed by her. She came to my mind again when the tsunami affected her country.
It is a shame that there is no attempt by me to trace her whereabouts all these years and it is only now when disaster struck that I find the need to know whether she and her family are safe. Still, I wish for the best for her and her family and just as her other employers she worked for, I hold on to the belief that she will call home again. For now, it will be to gather some money to help her country and other countries affected.
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