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An ancestral house is the home owned and preserved by one’s family for several generations. The pictures below show the wall paintings at the entrance of Bernice’s ancestral house.
Bernice’s story:
Presumably my great-great grandfather had it built. The house is about 200 years old. Yet the wall paintings are still vividly shining.
My great grandaunt was the last family member to lived in that house. She was born in 1914 and passed away in the winter of 2000. She never got married. Her life ended in the same house where it started.
Born into a wealthy family, she had a carefree childhood. As a little girl, she enjoyed local opera so much that she would sneak out of the house for theater. However, happy days didn’t last long. Her life was completely changed when the Japanese army attacked our hometown Swatow in late 1939. With three of her brothers went to seek a living in Thailand, she gradually became the matriarch taking care of the whole big family of woman and children and still managed to do some odd jobs to supplement family income. We all have deep gratitude for her and feel sorry that she has never established a family of her own.
