began evaluating her pre-surgery life.
Her business had kept her manically
busy, and even though she relished
her role, without her there performing
the daily tasks, it simply did not make
money and so couldn’t provide her
family the security she wanted. “I
kept thinking, What if I get sick again,
what would happen?”
It was then she had a light-bulb
moment. She recalled a business idea
she’d dreamed of ten years earlier but
never had time to put into motion:
an online party-planning site. Eezy
Peezy Parties launched after a year
of planning – a year that she says
propelled her past illness and back
into good health. It hadn’t been an
easy business to start. She’d never
worked in retail and had no idea how
to construct the complicated website
capability she needed. Suppliers
deemed her orders tiny, and she sent
hundreds of emails trying to secure
stock. Yet, she couldn’t let go of the
idea. “I was like a dog with a bone,”
she says.
Finding her future
Now that the site is up, running and
doing well, Christine is dreaming of
Eezy Peezy Parties retail locations and
franchises across Asia. But she’s most
happy that her children are as into the
business as she is – mostly, she says,
because they were involved in building
it on a hands-on level. Together, the
family spent long hours manning
the pricing gun, pricing products,
hanging shelves in their showroom
and constructing a chill-out space just
for the kids’ use after school. “They
know all about the blood, sweat and
tears, because they were there every
step of the way,” she says. “Before, all
they saw was Mummy busy with work.
They had no idea why.” One day,
she’d love to see them take ownership
of the company.
Now, three years since surgery,
Christine still has another two to wait
before she is given an all-clear – that
the tumour is gone and is not coming
back. She’ll never forget the feelings
of terror she had sitting in the doctor’s
office on the day of her diagnosis, but
she can’t help thinking that her illness
was the nudge she needed to take
action. “I’m a firm believer that the
world gives you a whisper, and if you
don’t listen, it gives you a shout, and if
you still don’t listen, it throws a rock to
your head,” she says. “I got a rock to
my head.”
February 2015
63
