This evening we went for the wake of the Late Major Goh Kim Chwee who passed away yesterday morning. As we prayed for his soul to rest in peace, we are thankful that he got baptised as a Catholic.

God has always allow events to happen for a good reason. We got to know Major Goh as he was Florence's ex-boss way back in the 80s. When the disaster happened in 1986, he together with the late Victor Subramanian were with us during that long 59 hours when Albert was trapped under the rubbles. We will never forget the kindness and help they had rendered to us during our trial moments. 

We are always thankful for these beautiful people whom God has sent into our life. Just before we said goodbye to his wife, I specifically told the wife and his son Bernard that his hubby/dad is a helpful man who had supported us during our down moments in life. May perpetual light shine upon his soul and may he rests in peace.

Lately, I have been telling myself to write about my life right from the day God created me and brought me to this world.

I was born into a family of 5 girls and 1 boy. My dad was then a seaman and my mum a housewife. I am the 3rd child and my 2 older siblings are girls too. I can imagine that both my parents were hoping for a boy but it was just simply not the time in accordance to God's plan.

My maternal grandma came from China and has that traditional belief that the 3rd daughter of the family has to be given up for adoption so that her life would be better.With that belief I was then given up for adoption when I was 15 days old. My dad was not keen in the idea but he gave in to both my grandma and mum's suggestion as most of the time he was out at sea and was rarely back home.

Both my grandma and mum were careful to give me up for adoption to someone whom they can trust and that was my most beautiful adopted mum. My adopted mum (Monica) was a single mother who has 2 boys of her own and her hubby had left her when the younger boy was 3 years old.

Mum Monica was reluctant to take me in as she was also struggling with bringing up her 2 kids. Back then my grandma and biological mum managed to persuade her to accept the adoption. Mum Monica was not too keen as earlier she has adopted a daughter who later died due to sickness so she simply had that phobia of having another daughter.

After much persuasion, Mum Monica took me in with the help of her own mum in law who helped to look after the kids while she went to work with the British Army in the day and coffee lady in the nite.

After the adoption, my biological mum and grandma believed that they need to adopt a boy so that subsequent birth would be a male offspring! With that belief, they adopted a boy and sad to say the next sibling after me is yet another girl! Finally, God is great to bless my parents with a boy (the 5th child) and then another girl. It was also very tough for my parents in those days feeding the 4 girls and 2 boys. 

Life was very tough for Mum Monica back then. I remembered growing up in a attap house and rearing pigs in the then Bukit Ho Swee Area. My 2 adopted brothers doted on me but my adopted grandma though loved me but still favor my brothers which was quite common in those days.

In 1962, a big fire broke out in Bukit Ho Swee and all the houses including ours were totally destroyed. I remembered clearly that the fire was a huge one and I was very frightened and was crying away. Grandma together with my 2 brothers were trying to lag as many things as possible from the house and at the same time holding me so tightly before escaping from our home.

We were then housed into a public school as a temporary shelter for all the fire victims. After a week or two, the government then allocated one room rented flats for all the victims. With the new rented flat, poor Mum Monica become so financially tight as she struggled to put the daily bread and butter on the table as there were no more income from the rearing of pigs by grandma.

It was very difficult for all us during those times as we find it a challenge to settle into the small "pigeon" one room flat as we are so used to "Kampong" life. It took us quite a while to settle down. As Mum Monica continued to work longer hours to cope up with the higher expenses, my elder adopted brother(Michael) was also going through a rough time.

Michael was a sensible son who at 19 was very willing to work day and night to help Mum Monica. The shifting to a one room rented flat and the rejection by the parents of his childhood sweetheart, Michael became very depressed. Furthermore, he had no family support as Mum Monica has no time for him. Soon Michael became mentally unwell and was admitted to Woodbridge Hospital! With his diagnosis, our nightmare began..............coping with his sickness and my 2nd adopted brother (Augustine) was mixing with the wrong group of friends and in gang activities! Life was really really miserable and we lived in fear daily.

Whenever I recalled my childhood days, I would get very angry with my biological parents for giving me up for adoption and putting me in such a miserable home. I would cried my heart out whenever I was beaten up by Michael. Well, those were the sad memories of the past but now I am no longer angry with my parents anymore. After I have accepted Christ as my savior. I believe God loves me and will give me the best. Therefore, I believe the adoption was the best for me in God's plan. 

Thank you God for my biological parents and above all thank God for my Mum Monica and not forgetting my dearest adopted grandma who looked after me for 10 years before passing away. May her soul rests in peace Amen!

As Albert and I celebrated our 32nd Wedding Anniversary on 30th December 2011, we are thankful that we have journeyed this far with the many trials, joy and happiness throughout these years of our being husband and wife. 2011 has past and welcome to 2012 as we look forward to another year of ups and downs in life. As I shared with Gerald today, we are not the best among all the people around us neither are we the worst. Hence, we are contented with who we are, what we have and we cant ask for more. 2011 saw Greg entering NS and as parents we are worried for his safety and yet deep in us we know is good for his character development! We witnessed Gerald graduating and getting a good job within like 3 months after his graduation and with me leaving TD for a better working environment and joining as a civil servant. We missed our love ones who have left us in 2011, Sandy Kee our ex colleague who took her own life; my God-ma who suffered from a stroke. May perpetual light shines upon their souls and all the faithful departed souls to rest in peace. As we move on into 2012, we ask God's Blessings be upon all our loves ones and the world too! With God as our defender and protector, we know HE is with us daily to share our Joy, happiness, sadness, confusion, fear, sufferings and even death. I have always told the Lord how much we love HIM and deep in my heart, I know The Lord loves us dearly! We have decided to adopt a puppy and Greg has named her Athena. We look forward to having her by end of January and I am confident that Athena will be a companion for both Albert and I. Today we have an invitation to watch a movie "Courageous" by Jason and Donna. We will told that it is about parent-child and family relationship. We believe it must be a good show and look forward to watching it at the Cinema this weekend! Target for the New Year will be assist in the Raising fund to renovate the church via a Gala Dinner in July and we hope to raise $1m! We hope that Greg is able to get a scholarship to study overseas uni and this will be yet another target to achieve! As I was writing this blog, I smelled of burning smell! Oh dear! I have put 4 Pau to steam and the whole pot was burnt so are the Pau! Thank God, Albert is not at home otherwise I will get a good scolding for being forgetful! Thank God for keeping us safe always and please help me to be careful and have good memories. Hahaha I am indeed getting old! Praise God Always and our Mother of Perpetual Help for always praying for us.

Today as we sent off God-ma Teresa Lee on her last journey on earth, we could feel the sadness that we are going to part for the time being till we meet in heaven.

We were thankful that we got hold of Anthony and the family to inform him of the passing on of God-ma. As they just came arrived at 2am this morning, it was just in time to send God-ma on her last journey.

The weather was cloudy with occasionally shower and the sadness fill the atmosphere as we arrived at the Church of Nativity where the funeral mass was held.

The white coffin was railed behind the altar boys and Father Kenny followed by the children, her grandchildren, god children, relatives and friends. The mass started with opening prayers, 1st reading, 2nd reading and gospel reading.

Father Kenny gave the sermon on how faithful God-ma was and who prayerful she can be and that she has been a great role model for her late husband, her children, grandchildren, relatives and friends.

After the sermon was the eucharistic prayers then the lord's prayer and followed by communion.

The grand children gave such a beautiful eulogy on their grandmother. The girls wore purple ribbon on their hairs as purple is God-ma's favorite colour. The grand daughter representing the rests, spoke highly of God-mas as a patient and kind lady who always said good words about others.

An example was given that if an appointment was made at 11am, God-ma would arrive at 1030am and wait patiently. By 1045am she were start to get worried, by 11am she would be calling the person. Finally after waiting till 1130am and still no sight of the person, she would frantically called the police!

After which came the saddest moment when the coffin left the church for the crematorium. The wailing of the children and the grandchildren filled the whole atmosphere.

At the Crematorium,the grandchildren sand a mandarin song "yue liang dai biao wo de xin" and it was so beautiful!

At the end of the song, we gave our last respect and bid farewell to God-ma as her body was railed for cremation. it was the saddest moment as we bid our last good bye!

I am proud to have a beautiful God-Ma and I thank God for her. May eternal rest grant unto Godma Teresa O Lord and let perpetual light shines upon her and may her soul rests in peace Aen!

As we agreed to do the documentary series for Suria Channel on the Collapse of the Hotel New World, the video shooting was done yesterday.

Since Albert is quite an introvert, I did not want to force him to have that interview which I had earlier with Cheryl. So I just played by the year and had the team to come in yesterday and all of us (the team and I) were pleasantly surprised when he just reply to questions of what had happened on that fateful day!

I must said that it was indeed sad bringing back the memories of the trauma that Albert together with the other survivors went through 25 years ago. On one hand we are sad to recall but on the other hand we are willing to share on life after that great disaster.

As we recall those anguish moments, we are grateful to the civil defense together with the MRT engineers and the many, many Singaporeans who had come forward and help us regardless of their race, language or religion!

Yes! as Albert has shared that because we have God, we overcome the phobia of that disaster pretty quickly and live with the faith that God is always with us. We live each day, thankful to God for yet another day of miracle as Life is unpredictable and anyone of us can be call home anytime.

Having said that, I receive a call this afternoon that my dear God-ma passed away this morning. It was a great shock as I just spoken to her last Sunday which was her usual routine call to all her God Children around this time of the year inviting us to her Annual Christmas Celebration.

Dearest God-ma, we love you and may perpetual light shine upon you and may your soul rests in peace, Amen!

We have a meeting whether to adopt a Border Collie puppy? Gerald and Greg are so keen but not my dear hubby.

Greg was pretty upset as he long to have one since young but I was the one who would not agree to it as I feel the money spent on the dog can help many people out there.

Gerald has agreed to pay for the maintenance of the dog and my hubby finally agreed to let the boys to adopt one.

Through the above conversation, I had a good talk with Greg who feels that he will even be even way better if he was looked after by mum instead of dad. It sadden me when he said that but tried to explain to him that that is not true. His opinion was that dad is an introvert therefore he would learn more from mum who is an extrovert. With his explanation, I can understand where he is coming from but still try to explain that things happen for a good reason. He agreed that he has no doubt about it and that his dad is after all a good father.

We are indeed proud of our 2 children who are sensible in many ways and daily we just pray that God will continue to give them great wisdom in all they do and do all for the Glory of God!

26th November 2011, we met up with Cheryl who is doing a documentary series on the collapse of Hotel New World.

I have agreed to meet up with her after receiving her email. She got my email address from my blog on the Collapse of the Hotel New World.

We started the interview about my feeling before and after the disaster. This interview brings back memories of what happened on 15th March 1986. As I have shared with Cheryl that before the disaster, we will just like other young couple chasing after the wind. The disaster has taught Albert and I not to take life for granted but to appreciate every day as a day of miracle.

The waiting and the anguish that we went through while waiting for Albert to be rescued is indeed traumatic! The thought of having to identify every dead body which was pulled out of the rubbles is the most frightening.

Those 59 hours were the longest waiting time and as for Albert, it was facing death and the great anguish of hearing how his colleagues passed on and his struggle to stay alive and be rescued in time.

After the disaster, we treasure one another more than any other time. We look at life from a very different prospective that money is after all not the most important any more. Everyday to us is a miracle and life is unpredictable. We are Just thankful for the many blessings in our life that we hope to stay health and happy everyday of our life.

Time flies and it has been 25 years ago since the disaster and today as we celebrate Gerald.s birthday with seafood dinner for him. This was his first time celebrating his birthday in Singapore after spending 5 years in Canada.

May God continue to bless Gerald with wisdom and good health!