MALACCA: It has been almost seven decades, but an octogenarian still yearns to meet her long-lost sweetheart.

Leong Yeo Mooi, 85, was only 17 when she fell in love with Ah Yip, who she recalled fondly as “a dashing moustached man in his 20s”.

It was love as first sight when he helped her parents install pipes at their home at the Rasah New Village in Seremban.

“At that time there were no mobile phones or even telephones,” she said.

“I expressed my love to him through a letter when he came back to claim payment from my parents.”

But her parents disapproved of her love for the odd-job worker.

It was the late 1940s and girls, Leong said, were not allowed to go on dates without their parents’ consent.

So, Leong and Ah Yip met under a neem tree close to her house, she said.

“He would come every Monday and Wednesday when my parents, who sold metalware, were in Kuala Lumpur.”

The couple lost touch, she said, when her parents arranged for her to marry a relative in Singapore when she turned 21.

“At that time Ah Yip had no proper job and my parents wanted me to have a bright future. I don’t blame them,” she said.

But she said Ah Yip was her first love who she never forgot.

Upon her husband’s death in 2007, she decided to take a bus from Singapore to search for Ah Yip, but fell prey to a snatch thief.

A picture of Ah Yip, which she kept for years, was in that bag.

She wandered around before an MCA social worker found her and took her to the Tong Sim Old Folks home at Taman Rasah, Seremban.

“I have a son back in Singapore, but I have not been able to contact him until today,” she said on Monday.

Now 85, and a resident of the home in Seremban, Leong said she was content spending her twilight years back in her hometown.

Leong expressed her Christmas wish to meet Ah Yip again at the Equatorial Hotel Malacca, which hosted a birthday party for her and three others from the home, on Monday.

The home’s caretaker David Chong said he had tried to help Leong to look for Ah Yip for nine years, but never found him.

“She (Leong) is still waiting for Ah Yip to come,” he said.

Earlier, hotel general manager Adrian Chung and his team also visited the home and handed over necessities to all 13 residents.

Chong said he was grateful for the assistance, adding that the home needed new beds and cooking utensils to meet the state Welfare Department’s standards.

On Dec 6, The Star reported that the home was nearly forced to close due to financial constraints.

Whenever Mr Tan Han Boon, 34, recalls the sight of the Mercedes-Benz charging towards him against the flow of traffic, it sends chills down his spine.

The project human resource manager, whose Mazda was badly damaged in Monday’s accident on the AYE, said: “I think it is permanently embedded in my mind.”

Mr Tan, who suffered abrasions and neck pain, thinks his car, which he bought in April for about $120,000, is beyond repair.

“I don’t think it can be fixed, but this will be confirmed by the insurance company,” he said.

Recalling the accident, Mr Tan said: “It was very unreal, like something in a movie.”

He said he had swerved his car to the left to avoid the oncoming Mercedes, causing him to collide into a bus.

356501

2016-12-19 13:51:35

Photo Gallery

1 dead, 3 injured in AYE accident

Source:

Lim Wee Teck

Rozaidy

Facebook screengrabs

• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–

After that, he lost track of whatever happened.

“After the accident, I remember a burning smell, my airbags were out and my glasses on the floor,” he said.

Mr Tan later went to the hospital on his own for a check-up to set his mind at ease.

Read also: AYE accident victim flung from bike says: I was lucky

This article was first published on December 22, 2016.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

She was riding pillion on her husband’s motorcycle when she saw a car speeding against the flow of traffic towards them.

Before her husband could react, the Mercedes-Benz hit their bike, sending them hurtling through the air.

As Madam Janice Choo, 34, lay injured on the Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE), her first concern was for the safety of her husband, Mr Teh Tze Yong.

Then, racked by pain in her left leg, her next worry was whether she would walk again.

The Malaysian couple, who live here, were among five people injured in the accident just before the underpass leading to the Tuas Checkpoint on Monday morning.

A Toyota driver was killed on the spot while his wife was injured. The Mercedes driver and a Mazda driver were also hurt.

Read also:  Injured wife may not be able to say final farewell

Businessman Lim Chai Heng, 53, was charged with causing death by reckless or dangerous driving at his bed in the National University Hospital (NUH) on Tuesday.

A video clip of the Mercedes hitting the motorbike has gone viral online.

When she saw the clip, Madam Choo could not believe the woman in the video was her.

She told The New Paper yesterday from her NUH hospital bed: “I cried a lot, but it was very hard to register that the video clip was of me.

“It made me realise how lucky I am.” The administration officer said her husband was taking her to work at Tuas when the accident happened at about 8am.

“I remember seeing the car coming towards me. I was shocked but I could not do anything,” she said.

“I remember thinking to myself, the car is definitely going to hit me.”

IMPACT

The impact sent her flying and when she landed, her first thought was of her husband.

She said: “I wanted to find him to make sure he was all right. I was relieved when I saw him alive. I told him my leg hurt a lot. I did not know if I could walk again.” Madam Choo has since undergone a five-hour operation on her fractured left leg.Her brother-in-law, Mr Teh Tze Wei, 29, said his brother has had two operations for fractures on both hands and injuries on three fingers.

The quality control inspector said he was unsure if Mr Teh will need to go under the knife again.

The couple, who registered their marriage in 2005 and held their wedding ceremony in 2011, are both warded at NUH but they have not been able to see each other due to their injuries

356501

2016-12-19 13:51:35

Photo Gallery

1 dead, 3 injured in AYE accident

Source:

Lim Wee Teck

Rozaidy

Facebook screengrabs

• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–
• 
  
  <!–

Madam Choo is now worried how the injuries will affect their future.

Mr Teh had just started working as a driver at Yang Kee Logistics about a month ago.

Read also:  Crash ‘permanently embedded’ in victim’s mind

“We will not be able to work for at least three months.

“I’m worried how we are going to pay the monthly rent for our home,” she said.

The couple pay $650 a month to share a three-room flat in the Pioneer area with three relatives.

A Yang Kee Logistics spokesman told TNP it had been in contact with Mr Teh’s family and will work closely with them “to render support through this difficult period”.

Her parents, Mr Choo See Chan, 58, and Madam Choy Moy Chai, 62, drove eight hours from their home in Perak, Malaysia, to visit her and her husband at NUH.

Madam Choy said: “We never thought something like this would happen. We were worrying throughout the drive here.”

The accident has made Madam Choo swear off motorcycles.

She said: “I feel too afraid to ride a motorcycle ever again.”

This article was first published on December 22, 2016.
Get The New Paper for more stories.

The news that five maids working here were radicalised through social media in the past two years has rattled employers and employment agencies.

It is no surprise, considering how closely Singaporeans live with their maids.

In the same period, another 65 foreign workers were investigated by the Ministry of Home Affairs over terrorism fears.

The ministry revealed these numbers after anti-terror police in Indonesia made several arrests over suspected terror activities recently.

One of those rounded up was Dian Yulia Novi, 27, who was allegedly planning a suicide attack. She had worked here between 2008 and 2009 as a maid.

But a look at some numbers may provide comfort and perspective – while five maids here were radicalised in the past two years, they were out of a total of 237,100 maids in Singapore.

Statistics from the Ministry of Manpower also showed that the 65 foreign workers probed to be a drop in the ocean, with the total foreign workforce here at more than 1.4 million people.

What is clear from this is that the majority of foreign workers here are law-abiding and are here to make a living to support their families back home.

The few who have fallen prey to radical ideology online are not representative of all foreign workers here, and we should be careful not to tar everyone with the same brush.

Singapore is a small island of 5.6 million people, and the foreign workforce here is a key part of the population.

We should include foreign workers in our fight against terror instead of viewing them with suspicion.

This means employers and religious leaders should redouble efforts to educate the workers on the dangers of extremist rhetoric and how they can navigate the online morass where such information lurks.

Those working alongside these workers can also do more to help them feel a part of society, no matter how temporary their stay.

dansonc@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Dec 22, 2016.
Get The New Paper for more stories.