The Blue Wallet

I used to have a blue wallet. It was given to me by my grandfather when I was in kindergarden. The plastic blue wallet was just like any other $10-20 wallet. It was about 10cm wide and 7cm long. One side of the exterior of the wallet had a velcro compartment which I used to store coins. The other side had a zipper compartment which I also used to store coins. To open up the wallet, I would have to use some strength to part the velcro as if I was Moses separating the red sea. Once opened and laid out flat, the wallet could be divided into 3 parts. The right side had a transparent plastic opening to slot cards and other cardlike stuff in. I remember slotting all of the useless phone cards, dragonball cards and some membership cards inside. The center of the wallet had an opening at the side with just enough space to store notes if I folded them neatly into four Now that I think about it, its probably used to store cards too. A note which is divided by 4 has almost the same size as a card. Lastly, the left side of the wallet has nothing of interest. At the top of the wallet was 2 compartments for putting in notes. One was probably for $10 and above and the other was for smaller notes.

I've used this wallet for more than 10 years. Ever since primary school, this wallet would be my choice whenever I went out. Even when I received wallets as birthday presents from my friends because they saw that my wallet was in a very bad state, I still refused to change my wallet. This is because I really loved this wallet. Even though I probably don't look like it, I am a person who has a lot of sentimental feel for things. My soft toy bears and dogs that I've gotten since primary school are still with me and I do hug them to sleep.To me, they represent all of my hardships, trials and other tribulations that I've been through till now. In short, they are a part of me. This is exactly the same for the wallet.

I brought this wallet with me to national service and since I was serving on board the navy, being splashed by sea sprays and heavy rain isn't all that too uncommon. During this time, my wallet was in my pocket and it had already deteriorated to a state where it was unusable. However, I still kept on using it, refusing to change to a better wallet. It was not until the later part of NS that I had to admit that the blue plastic wallet was no longer usable and it needed a change. I left the blue wallet at my desk and before long, my mom probably took it and threw it away. I didn't really think much about it at that time, since I decided that the wallet was no longer usable. Like a broken toy, I didn't bother about the wallet anymore.

24th June 2013. At around 10.30pm, my grandfather passed away. I returned from the hospital at 25th June 2013 at 12.15am. As I am writing this, I realized that I only have two tangible memories of him left, one of which is probably gone. The blue wallet.... and a red packet that he gave me on 18th June, which was my birthday.