"She was a solo mother with a young son. It was really hard to find a bank which would loan us money."
Nevertheless, Mr Yin said his "self-starter" mother found the support they needed and opened the shop. She was also able to purchase a home further down the road which doubled as a boarding house, with the second level being rented out.
As her business grew, Ms Yin made several changes to her home and shop. In 1972, she transformed the downstairs of her home into two separate spaces. She moved the fruit shop into one and rented the adjacent space to Grafton Pharmacy. Upstairs was turned into a small flat for herself.
Mr Yin said changes in Grafton over the years had affected his mother's business.
"When I was growing up, Grafton was a suburb of old colonial homes and boarding houses. It was a fairly transient community, far different from what it is like today. My mother was a very hard-working lady, but it became increasingly difficult to compete with the supermarkets."
