Dear Naz
RWAH Confections -Dear Naz,
When I first walked into Global Village Snack & Gift Shop in Holland Village Market, it was your warmth that caught my attention before anything on the shelves did. You were talking to someone (as you often did) with that genuine curiosity that made strangers feel like old friends. The store was small, but it had amazing energy. Energy that felt larger than its space.
You filled those shelves with things you had found and loved. There were snacks from faraway places, stories from people you met in Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and beyond. Even the little wall of cards and drawings told a story of its own. You told me about Paul, your favourite artist, and how children asked if they could put their art up on your wall. That wall said everything about how you saw the world: full of wonder and open to everyone.
When we met at my pop-up last year, I didn’t expect a friendship to grow from it. In the last year, I saw how you tried, really tried. Learning how to do Shopee live, experimenting with every idea, not afraid to fail fast and learn. You moved with a kind of bravery that only someone free-spirited and deeply alive can.
I remember one afternoon when both of us were feeling worn out from our businesses. I sat on the floor of your shop, and we just talked. About how hard it was, how lonely it could be. Somehow, that small moment felt so healing. It reminded me that the heart of what we do isn’t in the selling, but in the connecting.
Now that Global Village has closed its doors, I feel a mix of sadness and gratitude. Sadness, because it was a space that reflected you so beautifully. Gratitude, because I got to witness it up close. I know you must feel a sense of relief too, the kind that comes from honouring your own rhythm, from listening when life tells you it’s time to move again.
Thank you, Naz, for building something honest, for daring to try, for showing what it means to create with heart. What you built, even for just a year, was real, and it mattered.
Wherever you go next, I hope you keep that same lightness in your step, that same spark in your eyes. The world still needs more of that, more of you.
With love and admiration,
YY