Three daughters
It was Good Friday morning, I was in a taxi taking me from Hung Hom to the airport. The driver in his sixties was quite courteous greeting me with “good morning”. And as the ride was long, I started a conversation with him by asking if I was his first passenger for the day. He replied pleasantly that I was and that he had had breakfast with his wife before starting work.
We went on talking about children and schooling. He told me that he had three daughters with two already at work and one still studying. He proudly said that they were all in English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) schools and that the two elder daughters were both professionals. The eldest, 30 was an accountant and the other, 26, a physiotherapist. I commented that he must have worked very hard to support the girls’ schooling. He didn’t! They were awarded scholarships after scholarships!
Contented as he was, this father had one worry though – he didn’t know if his two elder daughters had started any romantic relationships yet! He reminisced that back then in his times, people in love would be talking on the phone a lot and parents would know a relationship was developing. But now that there is the smart phone, parents would not have any clue whether their grown up children are already in a relationship! And what’s more, people don’t talk. They just swipe!
That brought me back to the scene almost half a century ago when my father received my first call from a boy and how he interrogated me for details!
