A spare and a carer

In the 60s, a young woman got married and soon after that, she was happy to learn that she was expecting a child for she would be looked down upon if she was barren. After 9 months, she was disappointed when she gave birth to a baby girl for as a Chinese, she was expected to bear a son to carry on the family's name. Never mind, she told herself, I will have another child and she did, the very next year.

She was fortunate that her next child was a son, the much needed child. With her main responsibility fulfilled, she concentrated fully on her job as a clerk, letting her mother-in-law take care of both her children. She was satisfied with her life.

After 6 years, her mother-in-law took her aside and told her sternly to have another child. One boy was not enough. There must be a spare. And being the dutiful daughter-in-law that she was, she conceived again and was lucky to give birth to a baby boy. Now my family is complete, she thought and she turned her attention back to her job, now as the chief clerk in the same company that she has worked for since she left school.

Another 9 years went by and this time it was her own mother who asked her to have another child. It had to be a girl, to take care of her during her old age for daughters take better care of mothers than sons, she was told. Being an obedient daughter, she conceived again and her prayers were answered, a baby girl was born and she resumed working, still as a chief clerk.

The day finally came when she retired as chief clerk after working in the same company for 35 years. For a few years after that she enjoyed herself by travelling around the world a bit.

Then her body failed her and she took to her bed. Her first child has her own family and children so she was too busy to take care of her. Her second child gave her two grandsons to carry on the family name but only visits once a year.

Lucky for her that she listened to her elders because although her two younger children were married but they chose to remain child free so the youngest daughter cooked for her and visited her as much as she could and her younger "spare" son moved back to live with her to look after her full time.

Now who would have thought that having a spare and a designated-to-be-her-old-age-carer baby girl would work out so well. Neither did she. She just had them to keep the two old ladies from pestering her. But in the end, it really did work out well. She was really pleased.

Finally!

A big thank you to all of you who left comments with well wishes because with your encouragement, I managed to pass level 500 today and caught up with the game developer's release schedule. Now will wait for new levels to be released.

For the record, I did not use any real money to get special items and extra moves. Not that it matters anyway although it is better for the game developer if I did that. But I must confess I did use 20 virtual gold bars out of the foc 30 virtual gold bars that were given by the game developer to get extra moves to pass level 419 on 25 Sept 2013 (Wed).

The longest time that I was stuck on a level is for about 1 and a half months (from end July to early Sept) on level 410. That was the toughest level for me. I thought I would never pass it.

As to why I play this game: I find it very relaxing to play this game after a long day at the office. The candies are so colourful and pretty.

Once again, thank you all for your support! :D

Candy

One more episode to go - another 15 levels. The final level now is 500, can I catch up?

Farewell

Around the last few weeks of the year 1999, you wandered into our garden and adopted us as your family. You were a lovely kitten then and over the years you grew into a gentle cat and secured a place in our hearts. After leaving us on 11 Sep this year, we miss you very much but we know that you are in a better place now. May you rest in peace.