100-year-old Terengganu great-grandmother ready for muted CNY

KUALA TERENGGANU: The upcoming Chinese New Year celebration this weekend will definitely be slightly different for centenarian Lim Seng.

As she turns 100 this year, Lim, who is more affectionately known as 'Po Po' (grandmother) Lim, will be celebrating Chinese New Year without the lion dance, dragon dance, lantern parade and more.

In fact, Lim whose birthday was on Saturday (Feb 6), will be celebrating Chinese New Year without the presence of all her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren due to the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

"It is sad as two of my children live in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and one of my grandchildren lives in England. Often, they will return a week before the festival to help clean the house and so on.

"But I can't be angry with them because there is a disease that prevents them from returning to the village. I hope next year, the disease is gone so that I can celebrate the new year as before," she told Bernama when met at her shophouse in Kampung Cina here.

Lim, who has three children, 10 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, is still grateful that the big feast on Thursday evening is still allowed, even though it is limited to 15 immediate family members, who live within a 10-kilometre radius.

Therefore, at the big feast, Lim will only be accompanied by her son Poh Tik Heng, 71, and daughter-in-law Fu Sek Sue, 64 and her three grandchildren.

Although the big feast will only be held in moderation, Lim still prepares her must-have dish, 'Ayam Kam Heong', which is a favourite of the whole family.

"Usually, I will prepare 10 chickens to serve my family, but as many of them cannot return this time around, I may cook about one or two chickens only. I did not even prepare 'baju raya' this year, not only because of MCO, but also because I feel too old to have a 'baju raya'," she said with a laugh.

Lim, who has lived in Kampung Cina for more than 70 years, said that during the MCO period, she is still able to communicate with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren through video calls.

"People are very lucky now. Even if they live far from each other, they can still communicate (via video call). In the old days if one wanted to say hello, one needed to go through a letter that sometimes takes months to reach the family members," she said.

Asked about her hopes in conjunction with Chinese New Year, Lim, who is still healthy, said that she always prays that the COVID-19 pandemic will end soon and the situation would return to normal so that her family members could regroup.