Monday May 11, 2009
Grik couple have 21 children
By CHAN LI LEEN
IPOH: Anyone who is astounded by American couple Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s brood of 18 children do not know about housewife Chu Seok Len yet.
The 49-year-old from Kampung Kuala Rui in Grik, about 150km from here, has 21 children.
And, while she and husband Lam Ah Ngan had decided to stop having children after their youngest daughter was born seven years ago, their nest has not stopped growing.
Greatest wife: Lam presenting a carnation to Chu after she was named the Most Productive Mother yesterday.
“I have graduated from raising my own children to raising grandchildren, all 20 of them. They and their parents all live with us in the same house,” Chu said after receiving the Most Productive Mother Award during the Perak MCA Mother’s Day celebration here yesterday.
Having married Lam at 16 and given birth to their first child two years later, Chu had to single-handedly take care of 18 children while Lam toiled away at a local sawmill factory to put food on the table.
Two of their babies had been given away at birth while another died three days after being born.
“It was really tough and tiring. Money was never enough,” she recalled.
“We ate beras ayam (broken rice) because that was the cheapest. The children wore hand-me-downs given by other people.”
Their only mode of transport back then was the motorcycle, she said. “So we never got to go out as a family.”
Lam said each meal was divided into three sessions because there was not enough space to fit everyone at the dining table.
“It had been tough. Thank goodness we survived through it all,” he said.
Grik couple have 21 children
By CHAN LI LEEN
IPOH: Anyone who is astounded by American couple Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s brood of 18 children do not know about housewife Chu Seok Len yet.
The 49-year-old from Kampung Kuala Rui in Grik, about 150km from here, has 21 children.
And, while she and husband Lam Ah Ngan had decided to stop having children after their youngest daughter was born seven years ago, their nest has not stopped growing.
Greatest wife: Lam presenting a carnation to Chu after she was named the Most Productive Mother yesterday.
“I have graduated from raising my own children to raising grandchildren, all 20 of them. They and their parents all live with us in the same house,” Chu said after receiving the Most Productive Mother Award during the Perak MCA Mother’s Day celebration here yesterday.
Having married Lam at 16 and given birth to their first child two years later, Chu had to single-handedly take care of 18 children while Lam toiled away at a local sawmill factory to put food on the table.
Two of their babies had been given away at birth while another died three days after being born.
“It was really tough and tiring. Money was never enough,” she recalled.
“We ate beras ayam (broken rice) because that was the cheapest. The children wore hand-me-downs given by other people.”
Their only mode of transport back then was the motorcycle, she said. “So we never got to go out as a family.”
Lam said each meal was divided into three sessions because there was not enough space to fit everyone at the dining table.
“It had been tough. Thank goodness we survived through it all,” he said.
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