Family

Relationships

My complete, imperfect family

My Kindergarten teacher often encouraged us to draw portraits of our families. With squiggly lines and less-than-perfect circles, I produced masterpiece after masterpiece to the best of my 6-year-old...

Health

The night my mother was murdered

When I first found the knife, I thought nothing of it. But I did wonder why it wasn’t in its usual place. It had been wiped clean and was lying beside a bottle of vodka and some lighter fluid...

Relationships

Are you favourite child material?

“Madam Lim doesn’t hate anyone in our class. She loves everyone. But she doesn’t have to like everyone.” That was my reply to a classmate when we were in Primary 3. We were walking in twos up...

Culture

Are you fazed by praise?

Have you seen this video? As I watched it, I thought the video concept was novel, but didn’t otherwise think about it until I chanced upon this article on MindChamps...

Culture

I was almost aborted

For many parents-to-be, finding out the gender of their unborn baby is usually an exciting and touching moment. But not for my parents. My father really wanted a son. Imagine his disappointment...

Culture

I had an abortion, and the guilt and shame almost killed me

I stared at the rows of bottles in the room Marina had ushered me into. I’d been awestruck by the sights in New Zealand over the past few weeks, but nothing could prepare me for this. In the jars...

Relationships

When dad cheated on mum

I first discovered my dad was cheating on my mum when I was 20. It started off with fishy images I saw him receiving on his phone. Then, he started to make morning calls every day after my mum had...

Culture

Why Uncle Jeff loves Singapore and you should too

“This year, on Aug 9, I will have celebrated National Day 52 times,” Jeffrey Goh – let’s call him Uncle Jeff – declares, waving his Singapore flag. The National Day tattoos on...

Music

Hold my hand, child of my heart: This is the cry of our fathers

I’m Alexandra (Alex for short), and that’s my brother, Andrew, on the guitar. We’ve been roving about and bringing worship in simple forms to different places, and that includes several...