This month, I encountered 2 persons who had passed away. They left quite a deep impression on me.
1) Serene Lee Ying: She is my cousin from my eldest auntie. At age 57, she died of cancer. Her death came quite a shock. First, we were told that she had lost all her hair and had gone to Beijing 101 for treatment. The next thing we knew, she was admitted to hospital due to breathlessness while attending serivce. While in hospital, 2nd auntie and mom went to visit her. They realized that she was very blotted. However, Wendy assured them that there was nothing wrong with her. Then one day later, her death news came. It was only on her funeral service that we came to know that she had died of cancer. What was surprising to us was the Pastor in her church knew about her condition much earlier than ours.
2) David Tan Chow Heng: He was one of the elderly in our SAC. Though he had registered with us since 2009, he did not join our activities. It was only March 2011 that he came to our SAC requesting for financial assistance. At first, I thought that he might be one of those elderly who claimed that they were very poor and just wanted the easy way out for help. But as I went to his house to do a further interview with him, I realized that I was wrong. Here was a man, with little to spend and had to slog to have some money for food. This is often taken granted of by many people. He told me that when he was much younger, he had his taste of folly by committing adultery and did not take care of his children. When he broke up with his mistress in Malaysia, his children refused to have anything to do with him. This was especially so when his wife passed away. Only his daughter managed to forgive him as years passed by. He knew in his heart that what he did was wrong and there was no way to make amendments. So I tried to apply financial aid for him via the welfare fund. Thank God that the welfare fund helped him paid up one of his arrears in Town Council. But he still had problems meeting the other arrears. His god-daughter from Malaysia (from his ex-mistress' daughter) would come to Singapore once a while to help him pay off his arrears. However, he did not mind. He woke up every day to go to Geyland Serai to sell his barang barang. When the Town Council there threw his things away while he was in hospital, his loses were great. But he did not give up. Instead, he told me that he would slowly regain his barang barang business back. His health by then had taken a toll and he needed a pacemaker for his heart condition. He was worried about the cost, but I told him to look for the social welfare officer in TTSH who definitely could help him. After the pacemaker was implanted in his heart, he felt itchness and sometimes breathlessness. Though we had helped him financially and in whatever way we could, he did not take things for granted. He thought one colleague and many elderly how to make paper butterflies. Many elderly felt that he was so talented, being able to make sure of recycled items to make something so beautiful. Not only that, he made a good friend, Robert Wang at the SAC. Both of them were always sitting side by side, enncouraging each other. When he was admitted to hospital on 11 Nov, he took the trouble to call us and inform us that he would be absent from the activities at SAC. This was how responsible he was. However, that was the last I heard from him. When volunteer, Eric told me that he was discharged on Saturday, I was quite puzzled as to why he did not call to 'take leave' from SAC. So in that Saturday afternoon, Maikal went to visit him but there was no one at home. Today, I called him twice on his handphone to remind him of the outing tomorrow. However, the line was engaged. I remembered that the 2nd time I tried calling him, a voice spoke to me that he had passed away. But I was thinking, 'Impossible! He did not have any major illness. Morever, Eric checked with the nurse in TTSH and confirmed that he was discharged.' When I told Maikal that David's handphone line was still engaged, he called TTSH and confirmed that he had passed away on 15 Nov.
It was sad to see him leaving this world. But then I know that he will be happier with God now. Though our meet-up was only a few months, yet he left a very deep impression on me. This is the uncle which I will definitely miss, especially when I go to Merpati the next time round.
Uncle David, may you rest safely and peacefully in God's hands now. See you in heaven.
