Steven Toh and Augustine Chan

Parental Love

Steven Toh:

Steven Toh was born in 1958 to a working-class family of 11, having 4 elder brothers, 2 elder sisters, and 2 younger sisters. Born with asthma, his parents took special care of him at a time when advanced medication was both unavailable and unaffordable. To provide for him and his 8 other siblings, his uneducated parents had to work long hours and laborious jobs.

Steven lived in an attap house in a Chinese Kampong at Lorong Taluki, near today’s Hillview estate. This type of housing was common across Singapore during the 50’s and 60’s, often leaving residents exposed to the elements. He attended Princess Elizabeth Estate School during his primary school years, as a means of gaining an education that his parents were unable to.

After school, Steven would roam around his kampong to collect fruit and feed ducks and chickens. Clearing the leaves and dirt around the stilts on his attap house was essential to prevent it from flooding. When asked about his experience during this time, he reminisced about it being a “carefree”, “comfortable” and “joyful” period of his life, partially owing to a lack of pressure on his studies.

What Steven likely did not realise back then as the pain and effort that his parents were going through. When Steve’s spontaneous asthma attacks occurred, his father would take time off from his work and bring Steven to a doctor. This involved carrying him on his back and taking him from their kampong in today’s Bukit Panjang and travelling more than 15kn to Chinatown in order to see a traditional Chinese doctor to address his condition.

Steven’s father worked tirelessly as a chicken farmer, raising chickens and transporting eggs from kampong to kampong without the use of motorised vehicles. Steven’s mother worked as a washerwoman, walking to flats and houses to collect as much clothing as possible before washing and irony them at home.

Mr. Toh Kong Gwan (Father) and Mdm. Goh Kue Eng’s (Mother) love for their family, while not often expressed outwardly, was obvious in the lengths and pain they went through to provide Steven and his siblings with a comfortable life. Their sacrifice was what allowed Steven and his children to live the way they do today.

Augustine Chan:

Augustine Chan was born to a family of 6, having an elder brother and 2 younger sisters. Being born with eczema, Augustine’s parents have had to adopt a routine of regular doctor visits and caring for him. 

Both of his parents have university degrees and work as full-time office workers to support their large family. His father works as an economist while his mother is a social worker.

During his primary school years, Augustine’s priority was to score well in the PSLE examinations. After school, we would often head to tuition class or head home to do mock examination papers and homework. When asked, Augustine recalls this period as “stressful” yet “monotonous” as most of his time was scheduled by his parents and grandparents, with a heavy emphasis on studying. Despite being a stressful time, he was able to alleviate some stress by engaging in his hobby of playing the saxophone.

At home, while his priority was to focus on his own studies, Augustine’s secondary role was to complete various household chores in order to reduce the workload on his parents. For example, he woke up the earliest in his family, he would pack school lunches for his sisters, which were cooked the previous day by his mother. Furthermore, he often had to help his sisters with their own schoolwork and education due to the busy lives of his parents and older brother.

Augustine’s skin condition not only affected him but also his parents. During weekends, his mother accompanied him to see various different doctors in order to seek treatment and find a solution to alleviate his symptoms. When Augustine flared-up at night, his parents had to calm him down and help him to apply ointment to his wounds, doing as much as possible to relieve his discomfort.

Augustine’s father’s job as an economist entailed him to travel frequently, being home only three days in a week before Covid-19, while his mother’s job as a social worker required her to be on the ground at all times, often working on Saturdays and only arriving home after 11pm. Both parents sacrificed time and energy to ensure Augustine and his siblings have a good future.

Despite the vast differences in time, priorities, and standards of living that both families had, the love and concern of parents for their children shine through their unique actions and sacrifices despite the different circumstances they were in.