My late maternal grandma was very conservative and superstitious. When I was a child, I was not allowed to do many things. Some of them include no wearing of hair accessories that were white in color (she said only those mourning would wear white), getting white roses or any white flowers from friends was considered a taboo, no sticking of chopsticks on our bowl of rice (as this resembled burning of joss sticks to the dead) , no wearing of black or white throughout CNY, among others. But she was a very good grandma – very thrifty, creative, innovative, very strict but loving and a very good cook. I miss her a lot.