The Mystery of Human Actions

Well, for a post titled so profoundly, this is gonna be a simple one. I went to eat at Bugis food court 2 days ago (en route to heaven-on-earth, the National Library). Was in the midst of eating my soba when a Malay Indonesian lady sat on an empty chair on the same table and started chatting away in Indonesian. Now, in her arms was a totally cute little toddler, n one of my weaknesses it that I cant spot cute little toddlers without trying to grab their attention, either by grinning, waving, whistling, generally making a fool of myself in the hope of looking cool in the eyes of the toddler ;p
When the lady finished talking, she babytalked her son: "Ni yao shen me? aiyah, Nicholas, bla-bla-bla (some more word in Chinese)" which totally took me off guard, cuz...well...since when does Malay Indonesians speak Mandarin (not prejudiced here, it's juz the fact as far as I know). Before I could rein in the shock, she turned to a Singaporean uncle standing beside her n spoke IN HOKKIEN about ordering food etc. My mind immediately assessed the situation: "Oh, a Sg chee ku pek (old lecher - om2 kegatelan; segera aku memandang penuh hina krn aku benci cikupek) with someone else's maid. (Cuz the uncle didnt even look that well off to have a maid of his own.)

Now, another weakness of mine is that if I think I've spotted someone with an interesting personality, or who is in an intriguing situation, I'll just have to get to know that person, at least have a bit of small talk. (Call me "kaypoh", I call this habit of mine " celebrating differences and trying to understand humanity" ). Because of this habit, I've gotten to know people in the bus,in the bus stop, over the net, in the middle of the road, in the MRT, on the plane,etc. Gotten to know all kinds of ppl, too. (More on tt another post).

So newae, when the lady sat down to eat her food, I used the classic opening line if someone from Indonesia meet another Indonesian in Singapore: "Dari Indonesia ya?" ("Are you from Indonesia?") From there, we chatted, and I learn once again not to judge a book by its cover.
Turns out, she's from Yogyakarta, she's been married to the guy for 8 years, and the toddler is their first child (He's 8 mths old). And then she said,"My husband's got cancer. He's been thru a lot of operations."

..... I took another look at the uncle, and true enough, there were scars all over his neck, and that was why he could not really speak properly. I made a mental forgiveness at the uncle and the lady...and then chatted some more and said good bye.

All the way to the library I was thinking though, it would've taken a lot of sacrifice and dedication to live the way she lives - married to a husband who has cancer, speaks different languages, is of a different nationality, race and religion, not to mention the age gap. What made her stay with him,at least those years before they were given a child? Love? If it is, then I must have witnessed such great love, and from a couple that I previously thought nothing of, too. Money? Lucky indeed is the man that has only to pay in cash for such dedication and family life. (He was really loving towards his little son, too.) Others would've been willing to pay a much greater price. Promise of a better life, the kind of promise that lures Chinese and Vietnamese"mail-order-brides" to Sg? Could be, but why such a sacrifice -if she indeed views it as sacrifice?

Ufh, the mistery of what humans do and why they do what they do.....