From Charcoal to a Polished Gem

By Cathrina

A girl born in a poor family but with a big dream, Cathrina is full of admiration for the people around her and what they have that she dont have. Not willing to accept fate and with strong determination, push very hard to achieve her dream. One wrong step however nearly destroys her whole life.
At the age of just seventeen, Cathrina has already got her first taste of various drugs and is an alcoholic. Without anybody to guide her, will she sinks deeper or will she be able to turn her life around. Deep in her heart, she knows that she deserves better but sometimes she also felt that this is where she belongs.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: Jun 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781466991965

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

From the first glance, Cathrina looks like the wife of a rich man or the daughter from a rich family but is she really born with a silver spoon in her mouth or one of the rich man’s wife? No, it’s far from it.

Cathrina was born in a small town in Penang as an only child to a housewife mother and a veterinary assistant father. She however has two elder step-sisters and two elder step-brothers from her mother’s previous marriage. Life is hard for her family and they have to constantly struggle financially. Cathrina however is the pet of her parents especially her father who adores her the most.

Since young, Cathrina stays in a rented house with her parents, her maternal grandmother and one of her younger step-brother. Her step-brother will be her playing and fighting companion while being watch by their grandmother as her father will be away most of the time working and earning money for the family. Her mother will be away whole day too playing mahjong with friends but sometimes however, Cathrina’s whole family excluding her father will have a chance spending time sitting together in the living room watching their favourite Hindustan or old P.Ramlee movies.

Every Sunday though, Cathrina will be following her father on his motorbike to big bungalows and waits for him while he works part time job cleaning all those rich man’s dog kennel and feeding their dogs before going to the Penang Waterfall for a stroll in the evening after he has finished his job which Cathrina likes the most. She will be running around watching monkeys and feeding them with peanuts, and oh how she misses those days… . the day where her relationships with her father was so close.

CHAPTER 2

The Younger Years

Cathrina was born in the year 1982 and she was born as a dreamer. Since young, Cathrina dreams about a young and handsome boy that will swept her off her feet and that she will one day become a SOMEBODY. Being born in a poor family, there are times when Cathrina has this feelings of envy over other children her age especially when she sees them going for holidays with their family or when they had big family gatherings, barbecues, parties as she never experienced all these. Cathrina also never has a chance to choose her own clothes when she was young as it will all be decided by her mother. She remembers there was once when her father brought her to Yaohan, a very old mall that no longer exist to buy clothes and she choose a red Kiko brand jumpsuit that cost nearly fifty bucks. It ended up with both her parents arguing as her mother felt that it was such a wastage to spent such an exorbitant amount for a young child as she will outgrew it. As much as Cathrina’s mother loves her, she won’t hesitate to beat her up if she ever makes her angry unlike Cathrina’s father who pampered her a lot. Cathrina hated public holidays and school holidays a lot and she never likes them and it never meant anything to her.

At home, Cathrina’s mother will babysits children to supplement their household income and where there is none, she will works part time from home sticking up paper boxes for electrical appliances that is being paid few bucks per kilo. Cathrina and her step-brother will then helps out their mother as they think it is fun playing with those paper boxes and sticking them up piece by piece. Cathrina’s mother and grandmother are very good cooks and they always have tasty food to eat especially curries! Everybody in their household loves curries except their father as he will always eats out when he is working thus he is not well trained at home in handling those spicy food. Talking about food, Ramadan will be another month full of tasty food as every evening on Ramadan month, Cathrina and her mother will be walking to the far end junction of the road to buy various delicacies from the Malays aunties.

KINDERGARTEN

Cathrina remembers fondly of the time when she is in kindergarten when her parents waits together with her for her school bus, there will be an Indian uncle on a motorbike honking selling various delicacies. Cathrina was so into the Indian uncle’s karipaps with potato fillings that she will pestered her parents to wait together with her every morning for that uncle. She was