Last Nite of Maid, Santi and Life has changed

Dear All

Tonite is the last nite my mum-in-law's maid is with us. There are mixed feelings from both parties. My kids and I have grown closer to the maid and I believe vice versa. Santi seems especially attached to Felicia. She took photos of them tonite as she was quite sad in leaving them. Both Tiffany and Felicia expressed their sadness in her leaving. You must understand that she's only 22 yrs old and quite childish still, so the kids can relate to her. She even reads their pokemon comics and jokes with them. They share the same room and we have all our meals together, chatting at the dinning table. She's more of a helpful friend these few days as she fills in the gaps in our lives regarding her relationship with Albert's mum.

Many relatives have asked us not to sell Jurong house. Albert's mum told us before not to, my dad too, the maid, and I believe my mum too though she doesn't say it outright - it's in her tone.

I know the place brings lots of painful memories for Albert. I would like to have it rented out as the additional income now would be useful since I'm not working and our savings is pretty low at the moment. As Albert had pointed out, my piano is of quite sentimental value to me, as it's my first baby grand and I paid it with hard cold cash from my own savings. It's very ex to me and the sound from this instrument is extremely beautiful. It brings back memories when I was struggling and juggling work with travelling for piano lessons, taking leave to mug for the exams, and almost going crazy in pacing Jurong home floor and memorising facts. I practised hard on my baby grand and the reason I bought it was because the exams pieces were to be played on a grand. I remembered that the alternative was I had to book at most 1h practise slots at a time for a grand at around $170 per h! And most weekends and evenings were fully booked and there's only 1 place to get a practice session on a Yamaha model -- Yamaha Academy of Music at Yio Chu Kang (if not there, I remember it was somewhere very out of the way by bus)! The touch on a grand is very different from that of an upright piano, so it was crucial to practise on the grand for the exams. Albert and I spent our weekends then searching for a baby grand and we finally settled on this baby. So it brings with it a lot of sweet memories for me. The problem is our MP is too small to fit in a grand without it overwhelming our hall. (I suppose that's why it's called a grand lah!)

Next issue is, I know Albert's not too keen on renting out as he's mindful of the hassles and problems with irresponsible tenants. What with horror stories from neighbours, relatives and friends!! If not for (1) extra income and (2) I'm not keen to leave Jurong empty indifinitely, we would like to leave things status quo. Luckily, my mum's so sweet to agree to let my piano shift into her home. I know I shouldn't hold on to earthly things and I think I may be able to let go the piano, but I know if I sell it off now, I won't ever buy a grand again as there's no compelling reason to. She's be my first and my last.

From now on, we'll just take one step at a time at a pace that Albert is comfortable with.

Love Theresa