The Stamp Collection

My Grandpa was a man of few words. He showed his love by doing things for us, feeding us, and giving us money. He used to work for the Hong Kong government, in the mail/communications department. He received mail from different countries. For years he collected stamps. Stamps from China, Taiwan, the entire Southeast Asia, the Americas, etc.

Grandpa was collecting stamps even years after his retirement. I remember that he would carefully cut out the stamp from an envelope and placed it into water. Eventually, the water would wash off the adhesive part, so that the stamp and the envelope paper would separate nicely. After the stamp was completely dry, Grandpa would put it into his special album.

I also started a stamp collection. As I didn’t know many people, my stamps were confined to a few countries. Stamps somehow became the common ground between Grandpa and I. We sometimes took out our collections, flip the pages of our albums, and talked about the different countries inspired by the stamps.

One day, Grandpa gave me his stamp collection. That was how he showed love, by serving and giving. The joy of sharing. Although Grandpa is no longer with us in this world, I believe his spirit lives on. I want to share with the world what I love to do. I want to show my love for others by helping them to the best of my ability. I want to help others find hope when people are in despair.