My mum phoned this afternoon to inform me about Leonnie’s grandfather passing. Leonnie is my 11 years old cousin born under the supervision and OCD father whom by virtue of fate is my uncle. My uncle who is my mom’s younger brother, is salute as “Ah Kiew” in hakka. Oh! Hakka is a Chinese dialect, in case you don’t know.
When my uncle married Leonnie’s mum, we called her as “Kum Mow” in hakka salutation. Prior to their marriage in 1989, whenever I see her, I acknowledged her as Aunty Kim. At first it was quite unnatural because prior to their marriage there were Alison and Susan. Anyway, I am not going to elaborate on them.
Sadly or shall I say ‘happily’ to Leonnie’s mum, they divorced. Nevertheless, there were no clear instructions from my mum in regards to how we should address Leonnie’s mum.
By the way my mom is our walking Hakka/Cantonese/TeowChew salutation reference guide. Sometimes during visits to relative’s house, I may stumble upon some lady who maybe my mom’s dad’s (grandfather), youngest brother’s eldest daughter’s niece. Now when such situation arises, my mom would be the most important person to call upon to settle the dispute on salutation.
Therefore, in conclusion, I am in a situation where I do not know how to address her properly because her relation to me is through Leonnie only. Would it be “Kum Mow” or back to “Kim Aunty”!
Some say “Kum Mow” because she is still my aunty because of Leonnie’s existence unless otherwise. In fact “Kum Mow” was derived as uncle’s wife but she is not. Some may even say, no bigga-deal man just call her by name. Kim? If you are ang-mo I forgive you.
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