Back in 1978, my parents who were newly married open a shop name “Lucky Trading” in the small town of Malacca. In Chinese, it was called 好运, just like the English name itself, meaning “Good Luck”. They sold their home to begin this business venture. They had basically placed all eggs into one nest. What they needed was definitely needed more than luck.

Before this venture, my father was doing the business in his little van, by shipping the goods from town to rural area, while his wife Wa Yok, was supporting him at home. Other than the general role of a home-maker, mom supported the business well from home. While babysitting my eldest sister, who was then a new born baby and the house chores, my mother managed to do the packaging of the snacks and preserved fruits for my father’s business.

The opening of the shop was indeed a significant business expansion. Other than the existing business in the rural area, they could now have another stream of income from the retail business. Nonetheless the humble shop functioned well as a multi purpose real estate property.

The front of the shop was meant for their retail business at day time, and a parking bay at night. Dad would dove in his van when the shop was closed, and my parents would arrange the inventories neatly in the vehicle for the next day business in the rural district.

Other than that, there were a bed room and kitchen-cum-living room at the back of the shop where our small humble family lived in. My parents only had my 2 elder sisters at toddlers age. Though the family grew significantly bigger (four of us arrived) in coming years, they continued to live in till year 1994 when the my parents bought a small house nearby for us to live.

Tagged: Memory