One of my earliest memory of me as a child was when I was about 3 years old. Our house was the middle one of 3 similar houses. The Paks lived on our right, while the house on the left was occupied by a young family.
The Paks had 6 kids, the youngest of them was Pony. Pony was 7 years older than me. During the day, it was very quiet in our house. Only Mom was around, Bro and Sis were at school and so were the Pak children.
I used to run over to the Pak's house and chill out with Mrs Pak. For some reason, I called her Mama and her husband Papa.
Our houses were all alike in design. They were the typical Malay houses on stilts, but the kitchen and bathroom areas were on the ground floor. I remember sitting on the kitchen steps while Mama cooked lunch.
Every time I went over, she always fried me an egg - done over-easy, or "hor pau tan" (wallet egg). I recalled we used to have conversations, but not what they were about.
Dear Papa has passed on many years now, but last I heard Mama is still around. She must be in her 80s now.
Until now, every time I have over-easy eggs, I think of Mama's "hor pau tan".
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