Story and photos by ANDY CHUA
Yong’s son Philip Hii said he had sent the manuscript for printing by a local company.
Hii, who had edited his mother’s previous seven books, said he wanted to make the new book the best for her as it may be her last due to her age.
It’s me: Yong showing a news item about her in the latest issue of Borneo Talk while Philip Hii looks on. The title Inai Maram, he said, was chosen by his mother as the people of Kanowit, where Yong lived in the early 60s, called her by that name.
Inai means mother in Iban, while maram is a type of citrus fruit. A photo of the fruit will be on the cover of the new book.
Yong’s first book Through the Back Door was published in 1997. This was followed by One Thing Good But Not Both, Different Lives, Different Fates, Green Beans and Talking Babies, Sarawak Rojak, 888-All the Way Prosper and 160 Foochow Proverbs and Idioms.
Yong has written many true stories in her new book.
One that could be of interest to readers is a chapter entitled Little Angels.
In the story, Yong recalls that many infants were buried at a place in Jalan Bukit Assek, Sibu, before the Second World War.
They were sick babies given by poor parents to Mother Alphonsus, who headed a convent school.
Jalan Bukit Assek: The place where the dead babies were buried. Mother Alphonsus accepted all infants and children given to her.
When the babies died, the convent boys buried them in coffins made of wooden milk packaging boxes.
“Each time there was a flood, some of the boxes would float up. People used to say that Mother Alphonsus had many babies in heaven as she sent the souls of the innocent babies to heaven,” said Yong in an interview at her house in Sibu recently.
In her new book, Yong provides readers with the lyrics of an anthem entitled Sarawak Arise, which was composed for the White Rajah.
After the end of the Rajah’s rule, the anthem was never sung.
Yong, who remembers the anthem, sang it for this writer.
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