我的祖母阿喔❤️

Xia 霞（USA）

一年一清明，一岁一追思。……最是思念阿喔时💕

Once a year in spring , comes today , is the " QingMing Festival " or " Tomb Sweeping Day " . It is the occasion for visiting ancestral graves .... I miss my grandma "Ar Wo" (Ar Tai) most of all 

我们兄弟姐妹们从小就跟随我哥哥叫我阿婆（奶奶）"阿喔"，小时候，我以为，这是作为长孙的哥哥，给阿婆起的"昵称"，直到后来，我才知道，其实，客家人称呼奶奶，就是叫"阿喔"。

All my brothers and sisters have been following my oldest brother George since we were kids, calling our grandma "Ah Wo". When I was a child, I thought it was the nickname that George made up to grandma. It was not until later that I learned that it is the Hakkas actually called Grandmother by the name of "Ah Wo"

我岀生时（照片上的我👣）阿喔已是 60岁了。从小，因爸妈工作太忙，无暇顾及我们，热爱孩子们的阿喔成了我们心目中"最伟大"的人！因为，只要有阿喔在，这个世界上，就没有什么克服不了的难题！而且每年我们生日，阿喔就会煮红鸡蛋给我们吃，我心中会很快乐，阿喔知道我又长大了一岁！我得到了阿喔的祝福❤️

When I was born (in the photo  ) Ah Tai was nearly 60 years old . In my childhood , Ah Tai is always the "greatest" figure for us, since our parents were too busy with their works to give time to us kids .Because, we knew she love us in no condition and as long as there is Ah Tai, in this world, there will be no insurmountable problem! Every year on every grandkids birthday, Ah Tai would boil a "red egg" for the birthday one to eat as to celebrate his or her birthday , in those days a boiled egg would be a quite precious and delicious"gift " to get! I always felt very happy to get the blessing from Ah Tai ️

阿喔是梅县松口大塘唇，一个山清水秀的客家村庄廖家最小的第九个女儿，"九妹"机灵秀丽，聪明勤快。十八岁那年，长得美丽高眺的她，嫁入了邻村百寿楼梁家大院，嫁给了年轻帅气的祖父。从自由自在的小村庄，嫁入人口密居的大院里，性格开朗的九妹，与左邻右舍的乡亲们相处和睦，大家都十分喜爱她。

Ah Tai was borne in Guangdong , Mei County Songkou Datang Village , a small beautiful Hakka village, Liao's youngest daughter of nine , "Jiu Mei"(the ninth sister) ,smart and cheerful . When she was eighteen years old, she was a beautiful , nice-looking ,tall and diligent young woman, married into the Liang family courtyard of the neighboring village, and married to the handsome young man ,our grandpa . From a small free village, to a close-populated compound, "Jiu Mei" s cheerful personality helped her to get along very well with her neighbors and everyone .

"下南洋"是客家人的"传统"，跟随祖父，年轻的他们，搭上松口的小火轮，到香港，转搭远洋海船，他们去了印尼找营生。在荷兰"红毛"，印尼土著，华人…各种语言，各种文化习俗，各种不同食物的生活环境中，九妹见识了世界，她和祖父在这太平洋上的岛国打拼着，生活着，养育了我父親及他的4兄弟2姐妹。

"Go down to southeast sea" is the Hakka's "tradition". As soon they married, Ah Tai went with her husband(our grandpa), they took a small fireboat from Songkou to Hong Kong, then transfer to a ocean liner , went to Indonesia to look for a living. In Indonesia, there were mixed with the Netherlands "Red Hair", Indonesian natives, Chinese … In all languages, cultures and customs, and in all kinds of food, Ah Tai learn the world, and she worked hard with our grandpa and raised their family with 6 kids , which my father (GongGong) is the oldest boy and his three younger brothers and two sisters in this island nation of the Pacific.

后因不幸正当壮年的祖父得了急症热病，不及医治去世，… 年轻的父亲想回国读书，…太平洋战争相继爆发… 九妹带着一群孩子们回到了家乡。

Later, unfortunately, my grandpa , who was just in the prime of his life, fell ill with an acute fever, and died before he could heal . The family fell into difficulty and GongGong was just young 20 some years old as the oldest son in the family , wanted to go back to school in China. Soon when the Pacific War broke out ... Ah Tai brought the whole family with 6 children back to her hometown.

想象着，一个年轻的女人，独自带着一群小孩，应该有多难？父亲在学运中参加了革命，并成为了国民党追捕的共党学运领导者，牵连到家中的母親及幼小的弟妹们，阿喔却可以在同住大院里的国民党，当年在梅县任最高官阶的邻居官太太好友的帮助下，躲过了这一劫！她是个有好人缘的女人！

Even tho back to home ,imagine, how hard it must have been for a young woman, alone with a bunch of children? Early 20 years old GongGong took part in the Anti-Japanese War and became the leader of the Communist Movement pursued by the Kuomintang( was the government at that time did not like the Communist ), implicating his mother and his younger siblings in the family. but AhTai managed to get help from her good friend , who is the neighbor lived in the same compound , was the wife of the highest rank officer of Kuomintang in Mei County , to escape this disaster! She's a very good karma woman!

随着父親的工作，我们的童年在汕头渡过。担任领导工作的父親工作十分忙，忙得没有时间回家，爸妈住在了父亲的办公室内，无暇顾及孩子们。阿喔带着我们，住在汕头地委的"石园"院子里。"石园"里，住有几家都是地委工作的干部和家属，院子后院很大，有好些棵大树，小树，竹林，……象一片树林。有二棵高大粗壮的白玉兰树，那亚热带植物特有的大片绿油油的树叶和长满树上小巧玲珑清香的白色玉兰花，还有屋前几棵香气扑鼻的苿莉花，都是阿喔的最爱！院子中央有一口石头砌成的，挺大，挺深的池塘，四周有竹篱笆围着，篱笆上爬満了攀藤的绿叶植物，有一几级的石梯可以走下池塘水边去，池塘里四周层叠的石头墙长满了厚厚的青苔，夏天的晚上，池塘里总有几只青蛙，在夜色下，呱呱地叫，声音沉悶又大声，那时小小的我，常常想象着那青蛙的肚子一定很大……

With my father's work, we spent our childhood in Guangdong ,Shantou, the capital city of Mei County and Chiuzhou County . GongGong was the governor of these counties. As GongGong were so busy that he had no time to come home and PoPo lived with GongGong in his governors office and had no time to take care us , the 5 kids . AhTai took over the care of us to live in near by the Shantou District Committee's "stone garden" yard. In the stone garden, there are several families who were the head members working for the district committee. The backyard of the courtyard is very large, there are many big trees, small trees, bamboo groves, etc. Like a forest. There were two tall, stout white magnolias, large green foliage characteristic of the subtropical plants, and small, delicate white magnolias covered with the trees, And a few fragrant Kali flowers in front of the house, were all AhTai’s favorite! In the middle of the yard was a large, deep pond of stones, There were bamboo fences all around, and the hedges were covered with climbing greenery, and two or three steps of stone stairs to the edge of the pond, and the walls of stone around the pond were covered with thick green moss, On summer nights, there were a few frogs in the pond. They croaked in the dark, their voices gruff and loud. At that time, I often imagined that the frog's stomach must be very big...

那些年代，物质食品缺乏，而孩子们都在长身体，阿喔便带头动员那几位在家的干部家属们，一起在院子里的空地上开荒种菜，种蕃薯，种高粱，种豆子，种花生…，并用竹子做成篱笆，将菜地围起来，阿喔也叫孩子们下课后帮忙农活，种蕃薯，每人负责一昽地，并教我们，谁的地昽土堆得高，平整得好，浇水淋肥好，挿入土里的苗，就会长出大的蕃薯来。想起来，那时候我们还是幼儿园，或小学生，放学回家便会帮阿喔一起"干活"，积极地在池塘舀水浇菜，浇地，一心想着蕃薯会长多大呢？

In those days, material foods were scarce . To get more food to feed the children as we grew bodies so fast , AhTai took the lead in encouraging everyones lived in the "Stone Garden" to work hard to open up a field to grow vegetables, potatoes, sorghum, beans, peanuts... AhTai designed to make a fence out of bamboo and surrounded the vegetable fields to "protect " the fields . AhTai also encouraged the children to help with the farm work after school . To grow potatoes, each of us was in charge of a field and AhTa taught and encouraged us , who had high, well-proportioned, well-watered, and soiled seedlings, which would grow into large potatoes. Come to think of it, we were still very young, kindergarten, or primary school students, after school , we would help join the "work", actively ladle water in the pond, watering the fields.... I was so involved with the farming and thinking about how big the potato would grow ? If I could grow the biggest one among all?

汕头地委机关给我们家在院子里盖了一个独立的厨房和餐厅，这个厨房的后门外，盖了一个竹篱笆搭成的比人还高的鸡，鸭窝，旁边还放了一个木板钉成的兔笼子，阿喔在鸡窝旁种了几棵香蕉树，桑椹树，她说鸡窝旁的树都会长得好，而且可以给鸡，鸭们遮阴挡晒，果然，这香蕉和桑椹每年都长出很好的果实👍 看阿喔用灯照鸡鸭蛋，判断和挑选受精卵，来孵出小鸡，小鸭，母鸡，鸭生蛋后，收取鸡蛋，鸭蛋，还给兔子接生，生下一窝窝的小兔子们，收下未全熟的香蕉，放入米缸中保存，用石磨将高梁碾成粉做成不同面粉味道的高粱饼，还跟南下干部的北方家属们学做馒头面食，将丰收有余的菜，蕃薯，花生晒干保存，或腌制"潮洲咸菜"，用糯米酿制客家甜洒…… 阿喔和那些北方，南方，本地的家属阿姨们辛勤劳动和丰收的喜悦，在我们小小的心灵里，种下了热爱自然，热爱劳动，热爱生活的快乐种子👣👣👣👣

"石园"里的新厨房餐厅，门外对着一长长宽宽的过道，过道上搭了葡萄架子，十分阴凉，不过那吊着的一串串小葡萄都不甜，挺酸😊。葡萄架下，阿喔会摆出一个小桌子，和几张小竹椅子，特别是哥哥从住宿就读的"八一小学"回家时，她会拿出她那从南洋带回来的老荷兰蓝花搪瓷咖啡壶，煮上印尼咖啡，啊，那飘香的咖啡，有着浓浓的南洋味道，那就是童年……

阿喔是个十分爱干净，爱美的女人，她一直留着长发，我喜欢看她洗头梳头，她常常会用"茶枯"饼，敲碎那一块块的"茶枯"，用热水泡煮开，然后，用那茶枯水来洗头，也给孩子们洗头。茶枯水洗过的头发，清香柔软，很干凈，我想，不知道为何现在找不到这"茶枯"了，那是多好的自然保护清洁洗发剂！阿喔的头发，光泽柔顺，一直保持到她百岁都没变。

阿喔喜欢大自然，爱花爱树，爱小动物，她喜爱种树，种花，无论我们在汕头的"石园"，还是后来随父亲的工作来到广州市区的"教园"，还是广州东山培正路的小楼四楼天台上，她总是会找到合适的"土地"和环境来种树，种花，养猫，养狗，养鸽子，养鸡，养兔，养鱼，还为生病的鸡鸭喂药，为摔伤腿的猫包扎固定治疗，阿喔就象是一位天生的医者……我想，我喜欢种树，种花，动物，甚至选择学医，也是阿喔的遗传和她同情心，潜移默化的影响。

热爱大自然的天性，也是阿喔热爱生活，热爱人们的个性。阿喔有着天生领导者和大器为人的性格，她敢于挺身而出，主持正义，承担责任，我想，这是与她走过天下，见多识广的生活经历，和她勇敢善良的母性有关。对于阿喔，我知道，不仅在"教园"，而且包括原省博物馆，中山图书馆，省文化局，省教育厅，这个文明路，越秀中大院内，西堂，南轩，北轩，北斎，无论是干部们，学者教授们，各界人们，甚至孩子们，都会知道和认识这位德高望重的"阿婆"。

记得还是上小学的时候，大院里组织大家各户进行储蓄存款，好象是为了互助，大家一致信任，推选阿喔为"掌钱人"，那是各院子几十户人家，虽在那些年代，每家的"余钱"都不多，也就是以"角""元"计算，但对于不识字的阿喔，她却可以分毫不差地将每户帐款，记得一清二楚，当然，需要我们这些"小学生"放学后帮她登记名册。



阿喔是个十分公正的女人，记得一次哥哥在大院子里，用鸟枪练习瞄准射击，看到高高的树上有只鸟，便准确地将其击落。却不知此鸟非野鸟，而是北斋一位老学者家的鸽子，知道此事后，阿喔将家里最会生蛋的那只母鸡，送到他家，并叫哥哥当面向其道谦。当时看着我那只最心爱的芦花母鸡被阿喔捉走，我暗暗心痛流泪，却也明白，这是公正的解决自己犯的错误。

我们兄弟姐妹们陆续地，飘洋过海，留学国外，年老的阿喔思念着我们，我们也思念着她老人家…她舍得我们远走他乡，闯荡天涯，因为她知道，每个孩子都有他自己要走的人生路……

阿喔是个十分智慧的女人，我们的成长，深受阿喔身传言教的影响。每当淸晨或傍晚，在空旷的山间行走时，我会仰望那高高的天空，那晨㬢，那朝阳，那白云，那蓝天，那夕阳，那星辰，那月亮，我看到阿喔正在那广阔的天空上，看望着我，那睿智的眼神，那微笑的目光，仍然是那母爱的温暖，给了我无限的力量❤️

Xia