Mum & Dad

The former Chin Haig Road butcher making another striking tableau with his wife pacing slowly toward their former workplace. Thin, wiry man still good on his feet; the wife carrying some bulk and needing an umbrella as a walking aid, as always this morning bringing up the rear ten or so paces. At Onan corner the man pauses for her at the steps, allowing his arm to be taken for the descent and then the crossing. Some beauty of spirit retained in the aged male; the woman's smiles and greetings are less convincing. (Their maid had in fact corroborated the impression.) A shopping trolley sometimes pulled by him; more than anything it is a constitutional involved, an escape from the pigeon hole. They live alone in the block above Joo Chiat Complex, visited by the children; the weighting of love usually apparent in the variance of attire—smart new contemporary oyster knickerbockers sported this morning by dad.