There has been mentioned various times the name "Nyonya" throughout this website. This is the name that Joan's five grandsons called her. The story behind it is yet another illustration of what a delightful, whimsical and vibrant lady my mother was... It all started back when Euan and Ursula announced that they were expecting a baby. My parents were tickled pink, and immediately they set to the task of figuring out what names they would be known by. "Grandpa" was a perfect match for my father, yet my mum didn't have as simple a time... She didn't want to use "Granny", as this is what we had called her mother in Scotland and it felt sacred. No matter what other alternative she came up with, nothing quite felt right.... What to do??! I remember her pondering this dilemma until the answer came to her in a bout of brilliance. The story behind her choice is fascinating... With typical aplomb, Mummy gathered us all one day and announced with a wide sweeping gesture of the arms that she would be known as... (insert appropriate drumroll... imagine the scene if you will!) NYONYA!!!!! Our jaws collectively dropped, our eyes collectively rolled with the utterance of those two syllables and we collectively uttered the monosyllabic "WHAT??!" with baffled expressions on our faces! Not missing a beat (and definitely ignoring our comical looks - she was the master of that!) she repeated her new name, letting it roll off her tongue, savouring the triumph of her brilliance - "Nyonya". It turns out that she had gone back in her memory to the time in the mid 90s when my parents had lived in Indonesia for three years. As is tradition with expats, the house helpers referred to my mother as "Ma'am". She would have nothing of such a title, and played with them to come up with a better name for her. Much surprised, but delightfully going along with my mother's unconventional nature, they christened her "Nyonya", which is an endearing name and a sign of respect for elders in the Indonesian culture!! My mother was ecstatic with this new name, and it had obviously stuck in her memory, surfacing just at the very moment when she herself needed a name for her new role-to-be!! Part Two of this amusing tale, which highlights the very nature of my mum, comes in the form of an "I told you so..." We younger folk naturally humoured my mother with her newly unveiled title but secretly snickered at the thought of any child of ours, present or future, ever being able to pronounce this mouthful of a name (let alone spell it)! Euan and Ursula had 2 boys, and then Tom and I started our family: Boy 1, then Boy 2, then Boy 3! Thing is, our boys have three sets of grandparents making a grand total of six names to proclaim!! There is Oma, Grandpa B., Opa, Grandma, Grandpa and Nyonya... we would joke that there is no way on the face of this earth that any child would be able to get their tongue around the word "Nyonya". We jokingly placed bets on which name would royally come forth out of the mouth of my firstborn!! Wasn't my mother laughing to herself when the first name that came out of my Alexander's mouth was... NYONYA!!!!!!! We were flabberghasted with this! It turned out that the "Nyo" and the "Nya" syllables were completely and utterly natural sounds for a tot to be making as they played with their first speech, and it was fantastically logical to string them together to formulate this magnificent label for that wonderful lady who appeared so much in their early lives!!!! So there is the story of the name "Nyonya"... It represents the charismatic and vibrant lady that she was. To be called "normal" was an insult!! One of a kind, eclectic, unconventional, delightfully marching to her own drummer, that's my Mummy xxoxoxoxoxxoxoxo