Tulip bt Che Lah 1931-2004 (2) Biodata ~ The Bulner Family

1931 - Jumabee Tulip (born 4 November 1931) is the eldest daughter of Dr Che Lah bin Md Joonos and Daisy Catherine Decoursey Bulner. She was the eldest of 4 sisters by Dr Che Lah's first wife, Catherine Daisy de Coursey Bulner. She was known as Tulip to relatives and close friends, and as Tulip Che Lah (TCL) or Tulip Rashid (TR) to her students and colleagues. She did not like her first name Jumabee because she said she was not a Bee! But the Malay people called her Che Bee or Mak Bee. Bur her grandchildren called her Nenek B (as in the alphabets).

1945 - 1951 - An intelligent, obedient and observant child, Tulip attended the St Mary's School at Batu Road in Kuala Lumpur. She recalled a chauffeur in white uniform drove her from her home to school and back, in a white "Rolls Royce" - it was not a Rolls Royce, but some believed it was. Tan Sri Dr Raja Ahmad Noordin also recalled having been driven in the same "Rolls Royce", after a meeting with Dr Che Lah, from the Government Health Office in Kuala Lumpur to Sg Buloh where Dr Che Lah's family resided. Then the chauffeur drove him back to Kuala Lumpur. We don't know where this white "Rolls Royce" went. My eldest brother said it was an Austin and not a Rolls Royce although it appeared like one.

1952 - 1954 - Tulip then went overseas in 1952. She attended the Malayan Teachers Training College at Kirkby (Kirkby College), about 2 hours drive north-east of Liverpool in England. Her senior was her future husband. Another senior was Saliah Ismail @ Fatma Abu, younger sister of (Tan Sri) Dr Abdul Majid bin Ismail. Other friends were Yasmin Hanoum bt Sir Kamil Ariff (Penang), Tuanku Bainun bt Mohd Ali (Perak), and (Tan Sri Dr) Yahaya Ibrahim (Bayan Lepas, Penang).

1954 - 1958, 1960 - 1963 - After returning from England, she became a schoolteacher, first at the Bandar Hilir English School and then at the Jasin English School (1954-1963).

1964 - 1967 - She then taught at Sultanah Asma Secondary School 1964-1967. It was in Kedah that she became friends with (Tun) Dr Siti Hasmah and (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who were practising doctors in Alor Star, Kedah. At the time, Dr Che Lah was retired and had returned to Penang and practised privately while helping out at the Penang Town Council.

1967 - May 1969 - Tulip was then relocated to Sabah College (secondary school), Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu). It was at Sabah College that Tulip became the teacher of Datin Marina Lokman, the elder sister of Datuk Mahathir Lokman. She was also the teacher of (Datin) Mahani Pengiran Ahmad Rafaie, who was the ruler's daughter in Sabah at the time when Tun Mustapha was Chief Minister. There was also a Black Jamaican teacher at Sabah College, named James or George (I can't recall).

May 1969 - Jan 1972 - Tulip then transferred to Sultan Ismail Secondary School (Form 1-3) and Sultan Ismail College (SIC, Form 4-6) at Telipot, near Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

The SIC is in front of Dr Ali Othman Merican's house lot. The wooden house named Pondok K'seena was moved to Sg Buloh by his son Dr Ahmad Ezanee Merican. Dr AO Merican was an early Malay doctor, a bit earlier than Tulip's father. Dr AO Merican had passed away towards the end of WWII in Kota Bharu.

Feb 1972 - 1975 - Tulip then transferred to Malacca Girls' High School at Durian Daun. The school was in front of the Maktab Perguruan Perempuan Melayu Melaka government quarters where she lived with her family. She taught English and Geography at the girls' school.

1976 - 1986 - Finally, she relocated to the Penang Chinese Girls' High School at Pulau Tikus where she retired on 4 November 1986. It was both a sad as well as a happy time at retirement. She was sad to leave teaching altogether for she enjoyed teaching. She was happy as she had planned to visit the author towards the end of the author's PhD at the University of Western Australia (UWA).

Tulip was a quiet person and played the piano. She completed her piano lessons in England and became a certified pianist though she never performed publicly. She played Chopin, Voices of Spring (Strauss) and some ragtime including The Sting and Maple Leaf Rag. She was a good swimmer as a teenager and could perform most swim strokes. She also played hockey for St Mary's and for Kirkby College, along with Tuanku Bainun who lived across from her room. She had colours for hockey. She said she also played ice hockey. She tore her abdominal muscles while playing ice hockey and had to undergo surgery to stitch up her abdomen. She enjoyed tap dancing as a young teacher in Banda Hilir, Malacca. My parents went tap dancing at a dance theatre. We visited Malacca and my father showed me where they went tap dancing.

As a mother, Tulip was a quiet person around the house. She never spoke much except she would blurt a proverb or two at the right time and laugh once in a while. She was an avid reader and read Jane Eyre as well as Enid Blyton books and British magazines which were sent by her tutor, Mr Sellman of Essex, UK. She enjoyed needlework and craft. She sewed, knitted and did crochet. She had a lot of Japanese books for her crochet. She did not like gossip and never had a close-knit group of friends for that purpose. She had never learned the computer and never touched it. She had never emailed or knew Facebook. She watched English news on TV and read the English newspapers.

Tulip also read Betty Croker cookbooks. She liked baking cakes and learned new recipes from a women's cook group when she lived in Sabah. Some of her favourite are devil's food cake (an American rich chocolate cake), macaroni bil asad (an Egyptian recipe like lasagnia) and nasi tomato. She didn't know how to cook most Malay dishes except she picked up on a few from asking friends and her Malay relatives - nasi tomato, sambal udang, kerabu pucuk paku, masak asam pedas, masak lemak cekak manis with labu (pumpkin), salted fish head curry with pineapples and ketupat plus beef rendang for Aidilfitri. She was good with simple Chinese dishes and continental recipes.

Tulip wanted to become a doctor just like her father but she said the Japanese war spoiled everything. She missed 5 years of British education and attended Japanese school instead. She learned to read, write and sing in Japanese. She was able to read and crochet from Japanese books even in her old age. She told many horror stories about the Japanese war, including what happened at Sungai Buloh Settlement where her father was tortured. Her father took charge of the settlement as the Medical Superintendent there, as the British doctors were all interned at Changi Prison in Singapore. Together with her father in the lead, her family helped out to provide care, fed and looked after the lepers at Sungai Buloh till the war was over. None of them contracted leprosy. She said her father helped to make soap from coconut oil and soda ash (from burnt palm fronds). They had to make soap as there was no soap supplies during the war.

Tulip kept a complete work diary and a small pocket diary but she wrote nothing much in her diary except a few quotes. She never wrote anything much in her little dark blue diary. She last wrote of her father at his death bed. She wrote his name, birth date and date of his graduation from the King Edward VII Medical School in Singapore. These were written on a piece of paper torn from The Star newspaper. Dr Che Lah passed away on 23 January 1986 at GH Penang.

Tulip married her Kirkby colleague Abdul Rashid and they had 7 children. Tulip suffered from chronic diabetes type 2 since 1965, and succumbed to myocardial infarction (MI) while visiting her children. She passed away on 5 June 2004 and is interred at Tanah Perkuburan Islam in Bandar Baru Selayang, Selangor.

Tulip (right most) and school friends reading at the Reading Room, St Mary's School in Kuala Lumpur, 1945-1951.

Tulip (right) and her mother Catherine Daisy Decoursey (de Coursey) Bulner at the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station in 1952, before she left for England to study at Kirkby.

Tulip's bersanding with her Kirkby colleague Abdul Rashid
in Banda Hilir, Malacca, 24 December 1955. Their Akad nikah (solemnisation of marriage) was held earlier on 26 November 1931.

Tulip and her father, Dr Che Lah on his 75th birthday in 1978 at his home in Penang.
The little boy is Dr Che Lah's grandnephew Jasri Joonos.

These words were found in Tulip's diary of 1967: "To do good is not only our greatest duty, but should be our greatest interest." I have used this as the text description for this blog, and also as the last slide for my professorial talk in 2010.