MELAKA: Never in her wildest dream would a single mother thought that the good deed by her late grandfather to a boy and his family would be repaid some 40-years-later, in time when she needed it most.
Irene Lau Wei Li, suffering from boils the last four years, lost her job as a result of the disease was pleasantly surprised when Pantai Kundor State Assemblyman (ADUN), Datuk Nor Azman Hassan, 57, came calling.
He handed over cash and groceries to her and her two sons, aged 14 and 15.
After being abandoned by her husband, Wei Li and her sons have been relying on her dwindling savings as well as help from here parents and younger brother.
The 43-year-old said she was forced to quit her car saleswoman job due when she developed boils that led to a toe on each of her feet being amputated.
"My younger brother allowed us to live in the house he bought while he lived in Tangga Batu but he has difficulty paying the monthly installment of RM800 because he could not do business due to Movement Control Order 3.0," she said.
Lau said this when receiving a visit from Nor Azman at her residence in Taman Pokok Mangga, here today.
Nor Azman was present with Wei Li's father, Lau Peng Chai, 72, to handover a donation to ease the burden of the family.
Meanwhile, the state assemblyman said, during his childhood, he often bought groceries at the shop owned by Wei Li's grandfather, the late Lau Kiat, even when his family did not have the money to pay in Tangga Batu, Tanjung Kling.
"My father was just a village odd-job worker, he told me to go to Lau Kiat grocery store to buy rice and the towkey never barred us from taking take rice even though the old debt was still unpaid.
"I remember how I went to the shop without any cash but was still able to bring home rice and other groceries," he said.
Nor Azman, a businessman in the oil and gas industry, said that decades later, Allah turned the wheel of life by blessing him with a good livelihood thus enabling him to help Wei Li in remembrance of her grandfather's kindness and help.
He also provided aid to the family of Lau Peng Chai, 72 from Tangga Batu as well as other community members in the Pantai Kundor State Assembly.