Wishes for a

Chinese noodle preparation signifying longevity. The ingredients that go along with the soup include two chicken drum sticks, two hard-boiled eggs and the serving is garnished with spring onion. Only the birthday boy/girl will have two of each ingredients while the remaining family members will just be given a normal serving.

The spring onion is vital as it means “intelligence” when pronounced in Mandarin. I have my mother to thank for introducing this tradition to me since young, and it is hoped that this tradition will stay with the family for many generations to come. Additionally, when the clock strikes midnight, the start of their birthday, we would stay up to wish the child “Happy Birthday”, but this only happened when they were in their late teens and non-schooling days.

The children have since learnt to do the same for us. In fact, there always seemed to be this silent competition among the children as to who would be the first to issue the birthday greeting each year.

During my working years, I would take a day off when my birthdays fell on a working day. I did this to avoid any unhappy incidents at work, like a bad moment with a boss, a colleague or business associate, which would then spoil it for me for the rest of the day. I religiously did this my entire career, except for very rare occasions when the job demands did not permit.

It was my birthday when writing this. The children are all grown up and have dispersed. At midnight, no birthday greeting came, even though I was wide awake and checking my text messages. This is not surprising as it is a working day and I was sure that they would be in bed. However, there was still this longing hope that our old tradition is alive ...

My mother used to cook the traditional mee suah for me in the past. In her 80s now and no longer as mobile as she used to be, I cannot expect that of her even though she wants to. Funnily, I am cooking mee suah for myself today on the insistence of my husband with only him and mother to celebrate with. Nevertheless, the children’s birthday greetings have continued to roll in from different parts of the world and the bonus this year is the special singing video greetings via WhatsApp from three lovely grand children. I feel the love all around me and know that I am still in all their thoughts on this special day.

I am healthy, I am happy, I am loved – I cannot ask for more ...