Growing up
Pat was born on March 19, 1939, in the British colony of Borneo in the region of Sarawak. Borneo is now part of Malaysia. She was born and raised in the capital city of Kuching as the 4th oldest in a family of six children that included one brother and four sisters.
Pat’s mother, Anne-Liew, was originally of Chinese ancestry. She was born in 1911 in a small rural village in Sawarak. Her father, Brandah, was born in the village of Lundu, Sawarak and was part of the local Iban tribe. Pat’s father worked as a police constable before being later promoted to the position of superintendent of prisons under British colonial rule. Because of her father’s position with the British colonial government, Pat’s family was more privileged than most other families in Sarawak.
Pat’s childhood was not like most children her age in other countries. With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Japanese invaded the island of Borneo in 1940 after their forces had already taken control of Malaya peninsula and the Philippines. Pat remembers that the many British and American citizens living in Malay were quickly forced to leave the island or risk internment. Some were captured by the Japanese and put into detention camps. To avoid imprisonment by the Japanese, Pat’s family fled deep into the nearby jungle where they would hide for the next five years until the war ended. Pat’s father built a rustic small bamboo shack on stilts and covered with palm leaves near a river for the family to live in. Life in the jungle was very hard for Pat and her family. 
The family battled hunger, disease and many pests such as mosquitoes and snakes. They did their best to exist on the small amounts of rice, vegetables and fruits grown in their small garden and on the eggs laid by a few chickens they kept. Pat looked for small joys among the daily difficulties. She spent any free time with her siblings playing in the river, or enjoying games of hide and seek among the tall trees and thick jungle vegetation. Pat and each of the members of her family contracted malaria while in the jungle- a condition that would impact her health for many decades to come. With little medication to treat the symptoms of malaria they were forced to endure long and uncomfortable fevers and chills.
Finally, in late 1945 the Japanese surrendered to the Allies to end World War II. The Australian soldiers were the first to arrive to liberate the island. They brought badly needed food and supplies for the returning Malay refugees who longed to return home and rebuild their lives. Back in the capital city of Kuching, Pat’s father immediately found work as an interpreter for the Allied forces.
By the time Pat and her family returned to Kuching, she was nearly seven years of age- she had spent her early school age years in the jungle without attending school. Finally, in 1949, at the age of nine, Pat started her 1st year of formal education and was placed in the 3rd grade. Pat found school very difficult. She started later than other kids her age and had to struggle to keep up with her lessons. Her teachers were strict and mean- especially to students perceived as slow learners. The teachers often would use a wooden cane to beat students who made mistakes and would keep them after school. Pat’s mother, though, recognized the opportunities that education could provide her children. In spite of the harshness of the teacher’s methods, Pat’s mother gave permission for the teachers to discipline Pat and her siblings if they did not perform well or were disrespectful. Pat remembers well the sting of the teacher’s cane.
