Over the years, it's the excuses between kids and work, exercise comes with a queue number miles down from "what's for dinner?" Can't really recall when I give myself a serious time to swim. Just this morning I found myself pranced happily towards Serangoon swimming pool, alone, a public pool near my home. I guessed that must be dopamine at work.
I smiled as my mind was immediately teleported to a distant past in the 80s when my uncle used to pick my sis and I to his home in Ang Mo Kio during the weekends from my fostered home. He would bring his son (my cousin) and I to swimming lessons in a fancy sports club. The poolside sandwiches, video games, badminton with pro uncles, then the swimming lessons and the day in wonderland usually ends with a fantastic meal in a shopping centre. It's like rags to riches on a groundhog "week".
I called uncle Jimmy "Daddy" during that time, all my cousins called him that and it stuck. He's the 2nd son in my maternal grandma side, and one that cared and empathised enough with my sis and I, to do something about it. He paid for some of my programs and as such, my bronze swimming award from an Australian organisation which makes my NASSA Gold easy during my Navy days. Basic programming when I was Primary3, which helps me in my IT progression and academic advancement later in life, and many other activities that he became a beacon of light in my dark childhood days. The lenity he had shown over those years became a moral compass for guiding my family, and to others.
While I happily swam non stop for an hour, my mind kept replaying the days.... the graceful ways of the kind soul that I am still grateful for today. I wouldn't have known how to swim, let alone enjoying it,
I am spreading this love further, to more children in need. On this note, do drop me an email/text should u come across someone that I can be of help.. Meantime, God bless us all!
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