The following is one of my Christmas memoirs when I was new in Australia and penniless...
17 December 1990
Christmas would soon be here. Everyone in the postgraduate room is talking about going some place for the Christmas holidays. I could not say a word because I am not going anywhere. How could I, when I am just living on my scholarship stipend?
So throughout December days, I certainly knew that I was just going to stay with my mother at home.
One morning as I opened the backdoor of our rented house in Parramatta, I saw a white pigeon who was injured that it could not fly. I did not know what to do so I just gave it some food and water and went back inside to have breakfast myself with my mother.
When I came out of the backdoor to bring in our washing, the bird had disappeared...Late in the afternoon, when I opened the backdoor to let in some air, I was amazed to see the bird again. So I fed it again and gave it water to drink.
For several days, the bird was at our door in the morning, disappear during the day and back during late afternoon, during which I kept on giving it food and water. I felt happy doing this. I felt like I had found a friend.
Sometimes, the bird did not go away. It just alighted by our window sill watching me clean the kitchen or my mother sew clothes for me. Other times, it was nowhere to be seen.
Throughout all the Christmas holiday season that I was staying at home, the bird had given me great delight and company. I brushed with my hands its feathers and talked to it.
When Daisy asked my mother and I to stay in her house for a week before classes resumed, Art and his wife in turn stayed in our house. I asked them to feed my visitor bird.
When my Mum and I came back from Daisy, the first thing I did was to check the bird in the backyard. I found it nowhere. I told off my brother for not feeding it perhaps. He said I must be dreaming because he did not find any bird in our yard. Of course there was and my mother knew it. In fact she was also amused with it.
Every single morning and afternoon, I had been waiting and hoping the bird would come back. I even asked God to help it come back because I was feeling sad without it. As the afternoon died and I closed our backdoor, I felt like I could cry a lot because it hadn't come back yet.
I consoled and talked to myself. Anyway, I had to go back to uni soon and I would be very busy working on my thesis. My research should definitely crowd this bird out of my mind...
I thank God however for making me happy and sending this white pigeon to keep me company and make me happy all throughout my school holidays at home.
