"One oyster omelet." "What a beautiful sunset!" "Certainly." "I can't seem to recall the last time I felt this peaceful." "You're right." "We've come so far." "Without you I wouldn't be where I am now." "Where is fate leading us?" "We will go wherever it takes us." "We'll always be together, till the end, right?" "How much is this?" "You tell them it's too expensive." "You're asleep again." "Don't come back tomorrow." "You're fired." "Damn!" "Crying day and night." "What are you doing, fatty?" " Hello." " Hello." "I am... your new teacher." "My name is Ms. Chan." "What is your name?" "My name is Shijia." "You look... very cute." "Thank you." "Candy?" "Thank you." "Hey!" "Get me a beer." "Where's mine?" "I beat him all the time when he was young, and he still turned out useless." "Why isn't he like you?" "Sir, please buy some tissue." "$1 for three packets." "Thank you, thank you." "Hello?" "Why have you been avoiding me?" "StarHub is unable to get a response from our customer's mobile phone." "Please try again later." "Get out!" "Can I help you?" "Are you okay?" "...may perish from all sorts of hurt." "Love disappears only when you do not understand what it means." "I was born July 9, 1943, in Sago Lane." "I was a cute and happy baby." "But had my parents known what was in store for me, they would probably have given me away for adoption." "Dad lost a thriving restaurant business." "I had to learn how to cook, wash and clean by the time I was 10." "My parents were happy and proud of me." "But their happiness and pride did not last long." "There was little knowledge as to what really happened to cause my deafness." "How much is this?" "This one can." "How is your father?" "He is fine." "Do you go to see him?" "Yes, sometimes." "You should see him more often." "Old man." "Old man." "A pack of Marlboro." "Marlboro." "Why run a business behind a closed grill?" "It's so inconvenient." "You should open the grill." "At 14, I went deaf." "Why, I don't know." "One night blood and pus trickled down my cheek." "Both my mother and father didn't think much of it." "My mother thought it was only a small boil which had burst open." "The next morning I lost my hearing." "She shouted into my ears, but I couldn't make out what she was saying." "How much pain and suffering can a person take?" "I have often wrestled with that question." "I've lost my hearing, and now" "I'm about to lose my sight as well." "It all started with the right eye." "I saw changing colors and black dots and I kept blinking." "My parents did not take me immediately to the hospital for treatment." "They just gave me eye drops and Chinese herbs." "They only sought help when I was no longer able to see with my right eye and when my left eye started to give me trouble." "I remember long stays in the hospital, daily vision tests, painful injections and bandages on my eyes." "My hands were tied at night because they didn't want me to touch my bandages." "Every morning when the doctors came to check on me," "I asked them if I would ever see again." "One doctor patted my hand without replying to my question." "I just kept praying..." ""I do not want to be blind, and I do not deserve this eternal punishment."" "I became blind." "I felt I was living in a silent and dark prison." "There were days when I didn't want to live." "But there were good days when I would tell myself that it did not matter as long as I was alive and I was guarded by heaven's love." "I doubt if most people can understand what it's like to be deaf and blind." "It's as if someone had a wall which nobody can tear or break down." "I cannot see beautiful sights or hear beautiful sounds." "But I never saw or heard anything ugly either." "God works in mysterious ways." "Sometimes people appear and just change the course of your life." "Mrs. Elizabeth Choy came into my life and it suddenly veered into the most wondrous of dimensions." "Beth, now 95, is a remarkable person." "She suffered during World War II, but she never lost her self-respect, her dignity and her love for humanity." "She is my personal heroine of peace." "It was because of her that I went to school." "At that time, Beth was the principal of the School for the Blind." "Alerted by a social worker," "Beth came to my home in 1957 and won me over." "Somehow in my heart I knew she was kind and could be trusted." "She enrolled me in the School for the Blind." "It never crossed my mind that I could attend school again after becoming deaf and blind." "I soon met Reuben Jacob who became my beloved teacher." "Singapore School for the Visually Handicapped" "Nobody expected much from Mr. Jacob as far as educating me was concerned." "After all, I had a double handicap and I spoke Cantonese and no English." "He was blind, Jewish and spoke no Chinese." "But my teacher was a smart and patient man." "He devised his own methods of teaching someone who was not only blind but deaf too." "Would you like me to teach you weaving?" "Yes." "Okay." "Please do it for me." "Up and down." "Up and down." "Up and down." "Okay." "Please do." "The paper is like your finger." "You must be careful." "Do not bend it, okay?" "In early 1957, Sir John Wilson, the blind director of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind in London, toured South-East Asia." "The visit was to mark another milestone in my life." "When he visited the school," "Beth told me to tell him in Cantonese," ""Please help me and remember me." "I want to go to school."" "Mr. Wilson did." "He visited the famous Perkins school in Massachusetts and told the director, Dr. Edward Waterhouse, about a deaf and blind girl in Singapore..." ""If you see her, you will like her."" "Well, Dr. Waterhouse turned up in Singapore in 1958." "Yes, he liked me." "In fact, he liked me so much he offered me a scholarship to go to Perkins, where they had the best teachers and facilities to educate someone like me." "And so I found myself in America at the end of 1960." "I could not speak English at that time, and one of the most important things was teaching me speech." "It was probably baffling to a lot of people how someone like me who is both blind and deaf can learn a totally new language." "I guess it's true what they say..." ""If there's a will, there's a way."" "Determination can conquer the most difficult and discouraging things in the world." "...I prayed all the time..." ""Please don't make me blind."" ""I don't deserve this eternal punishment."" "The Story of Precious Lotus (Theresa)" "Pa." "Pa, how are you?" "Pa, your food is the best!" "Pa." "Eat." "Ma's dead." "You have to take care of yourself." "I'm translating a book for this lady, Theresa." "She's deaf and blind." "This is her life story." "You should read it." "I have to go and see Theresa now." "I'll come back next Sunday for dinner." "My father cooked this." "I thought you might like it... braised pork." "Smells delicious." "I was blessed and lucky enough to have traveled the world." "It was in Bombay that I encountered my first sorrowful experience." "One night" "God wanted me to know His world." "My traveling companion Peggy and I were standing on the balcony of the hotel when she described what she saw to me." "On the dirty pavements were hordes of homeless families sleeping." "Peggy said they looked hungry and lifeless." "It struck me then that while I was disabled," "I had everything." "These people were just struggling so that they could survive." "I quietly made a vow that one day" "I would donate something to these poor people in India." "In 1975, I appealed to the public for help and received some money with which I bought two Perkins Braille writers and two Braille watches." "I arranged for these and a sum of money to be sent to India." "I did a lot of growing up in America." "I received an education," "I did things I never thought I could do." "I even dated." "Pa." "Theresa loves your cooking." "I love curry." "It tastes good." "Anything special you would like my father to cook?" "My father is very inspired by your book." "This tastes very nice." "Your father is a good cook." "My father is very happy cooking for you." "He really enjoys your feedback." "I have three regular visits a week from kind folks who come to help me with my weekly grocery shopping, to take me out or to keep me company." "My father is getting better." "...From one who loves you..." "Going down." "Going up." "Going up." "We all have dreams." "I am no different." "I dreamed of being a Chinese opera singer at age three, but fate robbed me of this dream." "Are there dreams that do not die?" "God alone knows, and I trust Him." "I nearly got married in 1968, but I lost him to nose cancer on Christmas Day, 1968." "Till today, at five to 5:00 every Christmas morning, my tears flow freely." "Today I am still single and still very much in love with him." "I dreamed of love and family but God took my only love and all my sweet dreams died." "Pa, I need your help." "I have to attend to a suicide case now." "I need you to visit Theresa." "She's expecting me at 8:00 p.m." "Can you please go first?" "I can't make it on time." "I don't want her to worry." "Smells good." "What did your father cook today?" "Who are you?" "Are you his father?" "Yes." "Come in."