You may recall that a couple of months ago, our family traveled to Hawaii to attend my sister’s wedding. Right around the time we were about to depart for Hawaii, my grandmother went to the hospital, complaining of shortness of breath. She was admitted to the ICU with fluid in her lungs. She spent almost a month at the hospital, going in and out of the ICU.

We were able to visit her in the hospital a couple of times while we were there. The last time was just before we came back to Malaysia. She seemed to be on the mend, and I hoped against hope that we would be able to see her again the next time we came back to Hawaii.

A few weeks ago, my grandmother passed away. She was 92.

Grandma Lau with Esther and Daniel

She was laid to rest today in Honolulu. The following is the letter of remembrance that I wrote for her funeral.

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This past Saturday, we celebrated Daniel’s 9th birthday with great games and fine food.

Daniel turned 9, and for his birthday present he requested that we have a birthday party at our place. Since we had thrown a party for Esther’s birthday last year, it only seemed fair. This time around, though, Daniel would be inviting some of his schoolmates to come.

The trouble is, while we have lots of experience with cooking dishes for big parties, we don’t have so much experience organizing kids’ party games. Thankfully, Annie’s colleague came to the rescue.

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Meet Sharon, aka Shaz, from Test With a Skewer who is the Top Commenter for January! Like previous top commenters, to thank Sharon I want to introduce her delicious site to you.

I first met Sharon through the Muhibbah Malaysian Mondays roundup, which she started along with 3 Hungry Tummies.  Sharon blogs from Sydney, Australia where she is living, cooking and eating.  Her site is full of traditional Malaysian recipes as well as tantalizing bakes and cakes.

Here’s our fun little “interview”:

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This year marks our second Chinese New Year since we moved to Malaysia. Last year, we spent it in Penang with Annie’s relatives. This year though, we went back to Penang before CNY to enjoy all the great food while the shops were still open. So we’re spending our second Chinese New Year right here in Kuching!

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