{"id":3064,"date":"2022-06-19T11:27:56","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T11:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/?p=3064"},"modified":"2022-06-19T11:27:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-19T11:27:56","slug":"turning-adversity-into-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/turning-adversity-into-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning adversity into strength"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Down with polio at three and orphaned at five, Too Hing Huat sees hope in life as long as he can walk.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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By Foong Pek Yee<\/div>\n
foongpekyee@gmail.com<\/a><\/div>\n
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At 82, Too Hing Huat still rides a tricycle and tends to his vegetables and fruit trees daily.<\/div>\n
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Having to support himself with a walking stick does not stop him from moving around and being\u00a0 productive.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A typical day for him\u00a0 revolves around his village – his vegetables and fruit trees,\u00a0 his home that double up as a sundry shop and the coffeeshop to meet up with friends.<\/div>\n
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Hing Huat from Raja Hitam New Village in Manjung, Perak says he\u00a0 sees hope in life as long as he can walk.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Never give up:\u00a0 Hing Huat’s life motto\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Born in 1940 and growing up in a turbulent era, he learned survival at a very young age.<\/div>\n
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“I woke up one morning and cannot\u00a0 walk.<\/strong><\/div>\n
‘The day before I had fever .”<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hing Huat who regained his mobility but with a limp, has likened it to a new lease of life.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Youngest among nine siblings, they lost their mother during World War Two.<\/div>\n
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In 1945, Hing Huat ‘s ailing father who wanted to seek treatment in China wanted to take him along.<\/div>\n
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Barred from boarding the ship\u00a0 when they found him limping, his father went ahead, and that was the last time he saw him.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Until today we don’t know if our father had arrived in China.”<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Without formal education, Hing Huat took up odd jobs when he turned 13.<\/div>\n
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He was 16 when he landed\u00a0 a job at a Foochow pau shop in Ayer Tawar town.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It was at the shop that Hing Huat\u00a0 made some friends, including Tan Sri Dr Ting Chew Peh, who is three years his junior.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“He (Dr Ting) used to ride a bicycle from his village and parked it\u00a0 at the back of the shop before taking a bus to his school in Sitiawan.<\/div>\n
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“We did chat a bit when he returned to get his bicycle after school,” Hing Huat\u00a0 recalls\u00a0 the good old days, and a friendship that has remained over the decades.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Hing Huat married Tin Chon Heong in 1968, and they returned to his village the following year to set up their Foochow pau shop and raised their five children – all sons who are aged between 52 and 41 now.<\/div>\n
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Old faithful: The tricycle that serves Hing Huat well over the decades<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Choice location: Raja Hitam New Village is conducive for living and doing small business since the old days.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Community first : A well kept garden and playground for the villagers.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Education a priority:\u00a0 The village’s Chinese primary school SJKC Pei Min Kg Raja Hitam.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Hing Huat’s wife passed away about<\/div>\n
eight years ago, shortly after the couple retired and closed down their pau business.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Two of his sons settled down in Johor, one in Singapore and one in Pantai Remis, Perak.<\/div>\n
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Hing Huat stays with his youngest son,\u00a0 Too Song Yee and his family in their shop house in the village.<\/div>\n
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Song Yee and his wife Joan Law have two children.<\/div>\n
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Orphaned at age 5, Hing Huat has come a long way.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Three generations living under the same roof is a blessing.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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” Due to my physical disability, I dare not think of marriage\u00a0 initially for fear of not being able to provide for my family.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0“It is my wife who gave me the confidence that we can together raise our family.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Perseverance runs in the family.<\/div>\n
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Song Yee, 41, works about 15 hours a day, six days a week running his sundry shop.<\/div>\n
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A typical day for him starts at 5.00am.<\/div>\n
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He will be in Ayer Tawar town, about 10 minutes drive from his village,\u00a0 to get fresh vegetables for sale in his shop.<\/div>\n
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His shop opens by sunrise and closed at 8.00pm daily.<\/div>\n
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Returning to his village from Singapore for good 12 years ago, Song Yee never looked back.<\/div>\n
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Down with polio at three and orphaned at five, Too Hing Huat sees hope in life as long as he can walk. By Foong Pek Yee foongpekyee@gmail.com At 82, Too Hing Huat still rides a tricycle and tends to his vegetables and fruit trees daily. Having to support himself with a walking stick does not … Continue reading “Turning adversity into strength”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[263,264,101],"class_list":["post-3064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","tag-missing-father","tag-orphans","tag-turbulent-era"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3064"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3187,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3064\/revisions\/3187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevillagemyhome.com\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}