Gazing out of the window was one of my favorite past time since I am young. Living in a mansion facing the endless paddy field in front of me makes me think if a world existed beyond this place. The answer to this question of mine would come in a few years time when I am ten years old. The year where my old world collapsed and a new one began.
I am Sabrina James Lee. I was born into a well to do family. However, when I was ten years old my father lost everything when the war broke out. During the Japanese occupation in Malaya, the Japanese confiscated all of my father's wealth and properties. Our mansion was converted into their headquarters which was later destroyed by the British in 1945.
My father, James Lee was a strong, willed man who will never take no for an answer. He was a very successful businessman. He was into the export of paddy to the other Asia countries. He came to Malaya from Guang Zhou, China many years ago on a steam ship with my grandfather, the late, David Lee. They came here after my grandmother passed away.
My grandfather was a paddy farmer who taught my father everything he should know about paddy from planting to harvesting it. My father later became so good in it that he turned it into a large scale business. He married my mother who was one of his worker at his company at the age of 23 years old while my mother was only 20 years old.
My mother was an incredible woman. She was very knowledgeable, loving and caring. She learnt to read and write from her neighbor who was a teacher when she was young. To her, education was the window to the world. With knowledge everything was possible. She wanted to break free of the taboo tradition where women were illiterate and were expected to stay at home and bear children for their husband. This would lay the foundation to my future education.
It was love at first sight for both of my parents. People always said that opposite attracts. That was the case for both of my parents. My father was a tall, tan and well built guy with a deep voice while my mother was a fair, petite and soft spoken woman. She was patient and calm while my father was quick tempered. My mother was the rock and anchor to my father.
I was born with a chubby, round faced, flat nose, small mouth and a pair of single eyelid eyes; which was nothing like my parents who had very sharp features.
"You look exactly like your grandmother when she was young," said my grandfather.
I had never seen my grandmother before as she passed away when I was very young. I had only seen her from some black and white photos which my grandfather kept in his room. From the way he talked about her I knew my grandfather loved her very much. However, heaven blessed me with good health and a sound head over my body.
I learnt things very fast since I am young. My mother started teaching me to read and write in both English and Mandarin when I was three years of age. Both my parents loved to read. Therefore, we had a very big library at home.
My father always brought books back from all the countries that he travelled to. I spent most of my evenings reading in the library with my parents. I would ask my father about the outside world and the things he saw when he traveled. I had always been fascinated by it.
"One day...Sabrina I will bring you and your mother along to see the world," said my father.
While growing up, there was no other children around; it was just me, my parents, my grandfather, our butler, a few servants and my father's workers. I did not have any other siblings as my mother suffered a few miscarriages due to her weak health.
During the weekend when my father was free he would bring me cycling along the paddy fields or we would climbed trees in our garden. Sometimes we would fish by the nearby streams or when the weather was good he would allow me to swim in it. We had a great time together.
My grandfather would also tell me interesting stories about China's history during the weekend after our dinner. We would spent hours playing Chinese chess together. I was never bored. I had a happy childhood.
However, little did I know all of these would be taken away from me.