My youngest brother, nine years my junior, got married yesterday.
Weddings are wonderful occasions. A time for families to reconnect, for old neighbours to be invited, for an entire school to gather, even. Especially when the bride was a former SCGS girl, and your mom taught in the same school for 40 years.
My dad got a chance to be with old drinking buddies from SIA, and childhood friends.
I saw old neighbours I only knew by their childhood names, like Ah Sim, Ah Hong (brother to Ah Lee and Ah Tong) and Bao Nen. To them, the three Lee boys were Ah Mun, Ah Meng, and Ah Wai. My mother was the name invoked whenever the neighbours wanted to frighten their kids into behaving, as in "If you don't behave, I will call Ah Mun's mother over to deal with you."
My mom told me she had to go all the way to Upper Aljunied Lane, where we used to live, to deliver the invites, because she did not even know if the old neighbours were still staying there. Most of them still were.
Some of the parents who were unable to come, sent their kids to represent them. Such were the ties we enjoyed growing up in Block 3, Upper Aljunied Lane.
When I watched the photo montage my brother put up on the screen during the dinner, I felt a lump in my throat.
There was the old round rattan chair we all sat in as kids. It was a default baby photo prop in the seventies, it seems.
There was the birthday we celebrated in our three-room flat with the neighbour's kids, along the common corridor.
There was my brother in the same giant plastic rimmed glasses I wore when I was a kid.
Weddings in my household are loud and rowdy affairs. Even at a supposedly serious affair as the tea ceremony. But that is how weddings should be, isn't it? Loud, joyous affairs.
My mom could not resist the time-honoured wedding tradition in the household, making the couple pick out 4D numbers. Mom is such a lottery queen.
It was also a trip to see mom's old school teacher friends at the dinner. Many of them have known my brothers and I since we were kids. In fact, many were there when my brother, the groom, was in mom's tummy.
When it was time for them to gather for the photo taking, it was like a Singapore Chinese Girls' School photo taking session. I don't know how they crammed so many people into that photo.
The bride, looking particularly beautiful, was her usual cheerful self. Tricia never stops laughing and smiling. My brother is a lucky man to marry her.
Welcome to the family, Tricia. And we wish all the blessings we can wish upon the two of you, as you begin a new journey together.
So now that the wedding is done, when are we catching the next midnight show ah? The wife and I miss your company leh.
Here is a Flickr slideshow of some of the photos I took:
