My family relocated to town from the countryside years ago. Our new next-door neighbours are an elderly couple. So friendly and generous are they as if we were their children and grandchildren. As a preschooler, I was treated to a meal at their home from time to time. My best memory of the elderly couple was them watching TV over dinner, with me seated between them. At table, they were helping me to this dish and that.

After I started Grade 7, my parents and my brother and sister-in-law were often too busy to come home on time in the evening. When I came back from school, only to be greeted by a locked door, Grandma, my next-door neighbour, welcomed me with open arms into their home. I was only too happy to go and stay with them. I took the time to get my homework sorted out before my family returned. Should they make it home too late, Grandpa and Gran would insist I dine with them.

One day I asked them why they treated us so well. “My son and daughter and their kids aren’t in Hubei. Seeing you,” Gran answered, smiling, “I feel like seeing them.”

Since I was graduated from middle school, I have not had many opportunities to see Grandad and Gran and chat with them a lot. A school boarder, I have to reside at a dorm on weekdays. Our shortened weekend, less than a day, does not afford me much time to go over and see them.

On Mid-Autumn Day, I was told that Gran, taken ill, has been hospitalised, and that Grandad is left all alone at home. Every day, Grandpa does breakfast, dinner and supper on his own and delivers the three meals personally, come rain, come shine, to the ward where Gran is being treated at the hospital.

My next-door Grandad and Gran are almost 80 this year. I wish I could do something for them, but circumstance separates me from them most of the time.

May Gran recuperate soon and join her hubby in their home.