Waan Kam Yoke, 47, is James’ paternal aunty and she joined us at my request to share a little of the location’s history and how it relates to her and basically the Waan family. She called the place Queen’s Park and said she had lived there from her childhood until her Form 5 when she was about 17 or 18 years old. She quickly began to speak of the structures that once graced the place with a sense of melancholy. She said there used to be a Buddhist temple and pointed to the direction where it was, while we all sat at the outside lounge of the Starbuck’s there; and she and her elder brother (James’ father) used to live with their grandmother at the time. She quickly digressed from the topic in excitement to mention that her grandmother still lives and should be over 80 years now by her estimation but she currently resides in Subang Jaya. Returning back to the topic, she described the place as “such a waste” that the place has been converted to a commercial area and the businesses are not doing well either. She said if the temple was still existing it would still draw a crowd to the area and people would still come to worship. I have always known James to be a Christian so I enquired if she was Buddhist and confirmed if my conception of James’ religion was wrong. She said she was a Buddhist and James interrupted to explain that he and his mother are Christians.
On admitting that Jalan Peel (which is the general area) and Queen’s Park could be considered to be their hometown, Miss Waan mentioned again of another loss to the area, her secondary school. She said it was a Convent school and used to be down the road too. She tried her best to be objective about the by tagging them development but through her recollections and body gestures I inferred that is still a little upset and disappointed about the dismantling of the structures like the temple but was reluctant to admit it, probably to remain politically correct being conscious of my camera recording our interaction. She spoke of how even after the structures were demolished the land remained dormant for a period of time and laughed at my suggestion of people being upset over the demolition of a religious structure, telling of how the residents were only concerned with how much monetary compensation they would get.
She denied adamantly of having any memorable romance in her time spent in Jalan Peel and scoffed off the idea with unconvincing laughter.
She admitted that the place still has its appeal because she and her nephew (James) meet there once a week and especially “when James wants something”, much to the dismay of an embarrassed James. She also called the place James’ “2nd home” but does not ever see herself coming back there to live. She said coming back there was a step back or a downgrade in her life. This made me wonder why she would think so of her childhood home especially since it has such a rich significance in her becoming who she is today. I asked her why, and of she did not have any fund memories of growing up there. I was surprised when she said “there were no good memories”; she only remembers life there as a struggle specifically sharing rooms with her grandmother and brothers. Trying to enforce how bad it was growing in those conditions, she told me of how unhygienic living there was too, that in retrospect she remembers a stream where her brother used to fish and that same stream served as the latrine they used. I found that funny because in my hometown back in Nigeria, it is similar and I wondered why they would fish where people defecated and I was told that the faeces was food for the fish and it was healthy. Ironically she also admitted that she had no bad memories of the place either.
I also lived with my grandmother in her latter years and although she at times was a pain, now and even then while she was alive I cherished those days as some of the best. Maybe it will take losing her grandmother to the inevitable death one day like me, for her to appreciate or at least admit to appreciating those rough times and her time spent at Queen’s Park.
