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Grace Tan
In Church Weddings, Life, Musings, Weddings

A Myanmar Refugee Wedding: Zwe & Stellar

Photographers: Grace & Weiming
Videographers: Alex & Monica
Wedding Gown: DUMC wedding ministry
Groom’s Suit: Alex’s suit
Make up & hair: Grace Wang (bride) & Katy K’ng (bridesmaids)

On the 19th of July, Alex and I received a phone call from Pastor Margaret of our church. It was a call for help. Two Myanmar refugees, Zwe and Stellar were about to start their new lives as husband and wife, and they needed some help with the wedding.

If you did not read the background story as to how Alex and I got involved with this wedding, you’ll need to do that in order to fully comprehend this post.

So at 10.30pm on the 20th of July, Alex and I drove to church for the wedding ceremony. I was elated to see the bride looking so radiant in a white bridal gown, provided by DUMC’s wedding ministry. Amazingly, some months ago, someone had donated a handful of second hand wedding gowns to DUMC. Considering Stellar is a really petite girl (about my size, 5 feet!), it was miraculous that she managed to find a gown that fit her perfectly (ok maybe it is a tad bit long). Now if only my wedding gown was not in a box somewhere, I could have loaned Stellar my gown and the length would have been perfect.

If Zwe had chosen to wear Alex’s wedding suit, that would have been pretty weird, to see someone else in my gown and in Alex’s wedding suit! (not that I would have minded).

But Zwe chose one of Alex’s beige suits instead, and I think he looked smashing in it!

Did you know that in Myanmar, 55 million people speak a variety of 111 languages, but majority of them speak the Myanmar language.(source: myanmar.net). The Myanmar script draws its source from the Brahmi script.

Translated into English, the bible passage featured below talks about love:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. (1 Corinthians 13:4)

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Alex Lam
In Life, Musings

A phone call and a wedding 32 hours later

Grace came home from work, then flopped onto the bed as she would normally do, exhausted from the events of the day. We’d normally have a chat before getting ready for dinner or discuss renovation plans for our new home that’s still being built, some 10 months later. Today was different.

“Darling, I got a phone call today from Pastor Margaret. She asks if I can help shoot a wedding.”

“Sure, why not? Strange that she would call, though. When and who is it for?”

“Tomorrow night. 1.30am. For a Myanmar refugee couple.”

I shut my notebook and looked at Grace with eyes as large as golf balls. I echoed, ONE-THIRTY-AYY-EMM?

To understand this Burma / Myanmar story better, you’ll need to be armed with some basic information.

DEFINITION OF REFUGEE (oxford)
noun. a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

MYANMAR REFUGEE STATS IN MALAYSIA (UNHCR Malaysia)
As of end May 2011, there are some 94,400 refugees and asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR in Malaysia. 86,500 are from Myanmar.

GNI PER CAPITA IN MYANMAR (average of how much a person earns in a year) (UN Data)
US$578.30 (as of 2008 stats) – which is MYR1,740.39 (PER YEAR!)

“What’s the rush? And why 1.30am?” To me, it sounded like a secret ceremony that had to be done in a hurried manner, away from the prying eyes of the world.

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings

The Final Goodbye

28th June 2011. That was the date we said our final goodbyes.

Goodbye to the place I called home when I was a child. The place where I learnt to ride my bicycle, play fashion stylist to all my 9 Barbies, reluctantly helped my mom bake her pineapple tarts so she could sell them for Chinese New Year and also the place where I tried to cram my head full of info for my SPM exam.

It’s never easy to say goodbye, but in life, you have to move on.

While I discovered my treasure trove of Barbie dolls with clothes that have been lovingly hand stitched by my mom from scrap pieces of cloth…

My sister discovered some old pots that she decided was worth keeping. And my uncle from Brisbane discovered his old copper art piece that he created years ago.

We also discovered my brother’s old teddy bear that my sister claimed was bought by my dad when he was in London years ago (like 40 years ago or so!). And my dad’s beloved chess set. He was the President of the Malacca chess club in the 80s.

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Relationships

SOLD: The family home

For those of you who have been following this blog, you’ll know that my parents made the move to KL in 2009 to live with my sister and I. Since then, we’ve been clearing up old stuff and trying to transport as many nostalgic things as possible to KL. After procrastinating for such a long time, we decided the time has finally come for us to sell the house. Today, we signed the S&P agreement.

As my mom sat in her kitchen (possibly the last time), I felt a little sad to hear her asking for things like her oven to be brought up to KL. She said that the glasses in the cupboard are really good and I should keep it. Those glasses from the 60s with floral patterns and which were only used during Chinese New Year.

Reality is, we can’t move everything with us. That’s life. We accumulate material items in our lifetime, only to die and leave them all behind. What’s left are memories.

My sister discovered some stray albums that we missed in our previous trip back.

My sister’s and brother’s car collection. Should this go on eBay?

My little Lego looking set that I had since I was a baby (according to my sis).

My parents outside our home. My dad is still oblivious as to what is happening.

Next trip would be to pack some larger items into the lorry for us to transport up to KL. Then, it’s the final farewell.

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