My father's subsequent marriages

1. When Chik binti Hassan passed away, my father married Che Chah, widow of one Che Daim. Che Chah had a son named Che Omar who got married to his cousin, Che Tom who was a daughter of Zainuddin, Che Daim’s elder brother. It’s not clear whether Che Omar got married prior to or after my father’s marriage to his mother. Che Tom had a younger brother named Daim who would one day become a very notable figure in the country.

2. I guess that my father married Che Chah after he had retired from the KCS. Like his first marriage, my father had no children from his second marriage. Che Chah suffered from oedema and died sometime in the middle of 1940s.

3. I guess that after his wife’s death, my father left Alor Star and moved to Alor Merah which is about three miles away up north along the main road. There he lived amid the family of his stepson in a big wooden house by the road. As far as I recall, it’s quite a big family. 

4. As I had mentioned earlier, my father might have married my mother, Gayah binti Abdul Rahman, in 1946 or earlier. He was in his early 60s and she was about 16 or 17 years old then. My siblings and I were born and grew up in the big wooden house amid Che Omar’s family members. My father had publicised every one of his children’s birth in the Straits Echo and Times of Malaya.

The note read: 'To Che Gayah wife of Mr. M. I. Merican, J. P., Alor Merah, Alor Star, at 11.20 a.m. on April 16^th, 1947, a son, Mohamed Sheriff Merican'.

The note read: 'To Che Gayah wife of Mr. M. I. Merican, J. P., Alor Merah, Alor Star, at 12.45 a.m. on December 29^th, 1948, a son, Mohamed Hussain Merican.

The note read: 'To Che Gayah wife of Mr. M. I. Merican, J. P., Alor Merah, Alor Star, at 1.45 a.m., 16^th, March, 1950, a daughter, Aminah'.