Back in the village at Harrington Road, the most feared thing in the minds of my parents was to be in a situation when a child suddenly fell sick in the middle of the night. Back then, there was no telephone available to call for a taxi or to call for emergency helpline or an ambulance. One had to come up with immediate solution to address the desperate situation. If not, it could be a matter of life and death.
If a child suddenly started crying in the middle of the night and a touch of his forehead revealed high temperature, something had to be done immediately. In one such incident when one of my brothers suddenly fell ill, I remember seeing my father rushing around the house with a torch, flipping up stacks of old boxes and old newspapers looking for cockroaches. Once caught, the dung pouch inside its body was taken out and mixed with some Chinese medicine and fed into the mouth of the sick child. My parents told us that such concoction was meant for the treatment of high fever caused by fear (驚嚇). I never asked how such formula came about but I believe this must have been passed down to them from their forefathers. Interestingly, cockroaches are used in Chinese traditional medicine. Now as I reflect upon it, I still shiver to think about eating the organ of cockroach that consumes dirty things and even carrier of diseases! Yuck!
Back then, bananas trees were planted in front of my village house. A tree would be chopped down whenever the ripened bananas were ready for harvesting. I remember an incident that happened when I was probably about seven years old. After my father chopped down one bananas tree, the kids each plucked a long bananas leaf and waved it as if moving a unicorn head imitating a lion dance. Suddenly, I felt a needle-pricked kind of pain at one of the fingers. Within minutes, I felt dizzy and immediately proceeded back to the house to lie down. My father noted my sudden disappearance and rushed back to the house to find out when had happened to me. By then, my bitten finger had begun to swell and my father was sure I had been bitten by some kinds of insect. He went back to check and finally found the culprit - a spider. Of course, the unfortunate spider was instantly killed. For my treatment, my father hit repeatedly at the bitten area and then squeezed hard to "force" out the toxin from the bite mark. Then he rubbed the area with a kind of Chinese oilmen specifically meant to treat insect bite. Fortunately, I survived.
In another incident which happened when I was probably six years old. I tripped and fell while I was running near the chicken coop. When I fell, my hand hit the ground and it landed on a piece of rusted nail and pierced about 10mm into part of my hand just above my palm. Fortunately it was a Sunday and my father was at home. As usual, he hit the area hard to force the blood to come out. Then he applied a piece of a Chinese mushroom soaked with urine over the pierced area. Somehow, I survived without being infected by tetanus. Whether it was due to this unique treatment I couldn't be sure.
The saying "A mother would do anything for the well being of her child" is equally applicable to my mother. My eldest brother since very young suffered occasional seizures which my mother attributed it to his exposure to prolonged high fever earlier. Throughout his childhood and adolescent years, my mother had tried all sorts of treatment to have this problem cured. At one time, at my maternal grandmother's suggestion, the service of a bomoh was secured through her connection with her Muslim relatives in Kampong Darau. I remember when this bomoh came to our house, he prayed over a little pebble and then put it into a water bottle filled with plain water. He instructed my brother to drink water only from this bottle. The bottle was to be filled up whenever it was about to become empty. He also suggested his name to be changed from Ah Tet to Ah Nyee. This unfortunately did not cure his problem.
My mother had also at one time approached a woman member of the KK True Jesus Church who was known for her prayer of deliverance for people suffering from illnesses. She did come to our house and prayed many times and even suggested that our whole family to transfer membership to her church to ensure total deliverance. My mother was all persuaded and ready to change church membership when at the very last minute she was advised not to.
Desperate moments sometimes could cause one to try all sorts of thing and even to act irrationally.
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