In a Nyonya antique shop in Jalan Sultan, Singapore..

You can’t see it, but hidden behind her spectacles, she has the kind eyes of a mother. When she smiles, the outer corners of her eyes gently curve up together with her matronly lips. Like the clutter of antiques covering every inch of her quaint little Baba and Nyonya shop, her age is starting to show. Wrinkles and freckles that only come with experience grace her arms and face. But when she sits at her work desk and carefully hold the elegant needle between her thumb and forefinger, she is alive again with the fluid movements of a 20-year-old.

Little Nyonya lady working on an intricate embroidery in her little antique shop

Her eyes focused on the hundreds and hundreds of minuscule beads before her