Thanks For Giving

This morning I woke up at 11am (I slept at 3am last night so it's ok) to hear my husband on the phone wishing a family in US Happy Thanksgiving. He had caught the tail-end of the holiday.

I like the idea of a ThanksGiving holiday. There's food and family and you are thankful for all the good things in your life. We don't have such a holiday in Singapore. We have a month's long Hungry Ghosts Festival but that's another kind of festival.

I made this bag last night so you could call this my thanksgiving bag.

As always, go myEtsy and projectsbyjane.com if you want to see more pics. This bag was made for customers who want bags which are easy to match with their clothes.

Anyway, the idea of thanksgiving has stuck with me and I will start a new tradition on my blog of thanking the people who have helped me in one way or another. This year, my first Thanksgiving year, I wish to thank 2 very special women.

But first a very long story.

A long, long time ago, I was 12 and in primary school and money was extremely tight at home. Mainly there were so many of us. My mother had to take care of 9 children! I rarely had money for food during recess. So I was horribly underweight and possibly looked hungry all the time. My form teacher, Miss Tan who liked me a lot would ask me to help her finish her food. It seemed she overestimated her appetite everyday! This went on for many months until one day it hit me that Miss Tan was feeding me. I was quite slow in those days. I probably never said this enough. Thank you Miss Tan. You saved me from starvation. I'm forever grateful.

My next story also involved food. Hah hah. I was 14 and money was just a little tight at home. My mother had started giving me money for food in Secondary school. However, once a week I had school the whole day from morning to evening. So on that particular day, I needed to eat lunch out as well. But my mother for her own reasons, did not give me extra money. So once a week, I went without lunch and it was horrible. A classmate who was in the same predicament suggested we join a church across our school for bible study and after the lesson, we could have a free lunch. And that was our way out. Thinking back, it was deceitful of us to pretend to be interested in the bible when all we wanted was a free lunch. But we were such hungry girls. I had a mentor whose job was to study the bible with me and teach me hymns. I really pitied her because my hymns were always off-key and I needed a lyric sheet! My stomach also growled really loudly. My mentor kind of knew we were there just for the free lunch but she still fed us and welcomed us warmly every week. I have forgotten her name but thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Bt the way, I don't blame my mother for anything. She did the best she could. And I survived.