Yesterday was a very emotional day for my boys and I. Its been 5 years!!!! How time flies!

I was heavily pregnant with Binbin then. Keatkeat was not even 2 years old. I desperately needed help to clean my house as I was working 12 hours a day, in my retail business, 7 days a week.

It was by chance that I met this other bazaar participant. Her name was Minh. She introduced her helper to me – Rose. Rose is the most hardworking and smart person I have ever met. She looks more than 10 years younger than what she really is. *smile* She used to work in an office when she first came to Singapore. She loves to read and her English is extremely good for a Filipino.

To my boys, Auntie Rose has been with them ever since they can remember. She comes once a week back then and has helped us for 5 years! She does more than what she was assigned. Many chores that were not required of her to do, she will go out of her way to do it. She will stay longer than she is required to, so as to make sure everything is proper and tidy and clean before she leaves each time.

My boys love her and my heart is filled with gratefulness, especially during those times when Binbin was still a newborn and Keatkeat, at 1+, was still quite a handful, Rose has initiated to help me in more ways than one.

She is returning home to her country for good with her husband. They decided to retire and leave hectic Singapore. Doing cleaning for others is her way of passing time, not her way of survival. She does not need these cleaning jobs to fill her tummy with meals, yet she put her heart and soul to it. And hence, she is packed with 2 houses to clean 6 days a week! Referrals went to her like river, she had no choice but to reject. She is really an excellent helper.

Yesterday was her last day with us, but Keatkeat could not be present to say goodbye to her because of school. He was stamping his feet and crossing his arms when I told him yesterday was Auntie Rose’s last day with us. “Oh Man! Then I can’t chit chat with her for the last time!!! So unfair! Binbin gets to chitchat with her for the last time and I cannot!”

Luckily we managed to snap the above photo when Keatkeat was exempted from school because of the PSLE students 2 weeks back. If not, Keatkeat would really have missed the chance to capture the last memory…

Keatkeat and Binbin love to chat with her and get teased by her. They love to disturb help her too. And because she had babysitted or rather children-sitted kids in the past before, thus she knows how to make them really happy. In short, my boys love her to their bones.

So on this very last day, the privileged ones who got to say goodbye was Binbin and I. Binbin hugged her and so did I. She felt really uncomfortable because of her perspiration from all the cleaning, but Binbin and I did not care, we just want to hug her. *Smile* It was an emotional moment….

Goodbye Auntie Rose, We Will Miss You Very Very Much!