“OUR CHILDHOODS WERE VERY MUCH SPENT AT THE OUTLETS”
While Susan described her father to be a serious man of few words, his eldest grandson remembered otherwise. “Ah Gong to his grandchildren was very different from a father to Susan. Hers is stern, ours is nice, caring, and thoughtful,” Alvin said. Now the chief operating officer of JP Pepperdine, the 40-year-old fondly looked back on his childhood:
“On Fridays, the cousins would stay overnight so we could all go out with Ah Gong the next day. He would squeeze seven of us in his classic Volvo and take us to the McDonald’s at Serene Centre. They said that I am his favourite grandson, so they asked me to sit beside him. Then maybe Ah Gong will give us more pocket money.”
“He’s very generous,” Susan quipped. “Always give them pocket money. Quite a lot one.”
For Jason, Jack’s Place was like a “daycare” centre. “My mom worked at the Bras Basah outlet, so I would walk over after school. My Saturdays would be spent at the Killiney Road outlet with Aunt Susan, who will bring my cousin and me for Taekwondo lessons,” he said. Since young, the cousins’ parents have always shared that life and work are inescapably intertwined. “Our childhoods are very much spent at the outlets,” Alvin added.