When Daddy was alive, he told me many stories of his late Dad's youth. My grandfather, Ah Kong, was incredibly strong. His could do all the stunts performed by circus strongmen. His signature feat was to lift 4 body builders off the ground in a reverse pushup as seen in the old photo I posted here. My fourth uncle kept Ah Kong's photograph. My cousin restored this one and shared it with the rest of the extended Wee family, in memory of our amazing patriarch.
A Hero's Courage
Ah Kong was a hero. He once swam out in the open sea, the distance between Katong and East Coast Park (the land between Katong all the way through Marine Parade is reclaimed from the sea) to save a stranger from drowning. That gave me the opening scene for my book Singapore's Runaway.
The Runaway Boy
After Ah Kong's mother passed away, his father remarried. When he brought Ah Kong's step mother home, Ah Kong was so upset, he ran away from their family home in Bukit Timah, to join the crew of a sailing ship.
His stepmom was a good woman. She sent her brothers to search the islands around Singapore, to as far as the Philipines for him, hoping to bring him back. One of his brothers found him in Indonesia and persuaded Ah Kong to return back to Singapore with him. That was why our entire tribe was born in Singapore, not Indonesia.
A Miraculous Escape
Another story Dad often told me was how, during World War 2, Ah Kong would have died in the hands of the Japanese, if not for his miraculous escape. To preserve his story, I wrote the short ebook, Escape. The Sook Ching massacre was a tragic chapter in Singapore's history.
Ah Kong's legacy of strength, courage, and resilience lives on through these stories. His incredible feats and heroic actions continue to inspire our family and readers of my books.