A Sunrise with Dad

I took this photograph in December 2024, aboard Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas, on what would be my last holiday with Dad. After the cruise, he told me how peaceful he had felt watching the sea each morning and enjoying the morning air. Those mornings brought back memories of his childhood in my grandfather’s seaside bungalow at Pasir Panjang.

The following January, a health scare led to a hospital admission. Although he recovered briefly, his health declined again in late March and early April.

At the “Tan Lip Seng – A Life in Colour” exhibition at Objectifs, a collage brings together sunrises Dad photographed over the last five years of his life. Through COVID, major surgery, recovery, remission and recurrence, he kept photographing the morning light. My brother, who lived with Dad, shared many of those moments with him.

I am grateful that I, too, got to share one of those sunrises with Dad, alongside his elder grandson, of whom he was so proud. We were three generations watching the morning light together, just a few months before his passing.

Looking at this photograph now, I remember who was beside me, and the peace Dad found in those mornings by the sea.