The Real Life Story that Makes People Tear (Mr Wan)

This is an article found in the New Paper 2 days ago.

The story line is very mature and a lot of subtle messages about love is hidden in the text.

If you want to improve in composition, try rewriting this story from the perspective of the 2 old couple's child.

Joslyn, Alicia, Jean, Cheryl and Christie, if anyone of you could rewrite this like composition from the perspective of the 2 old couple's child, you will progress to a higher level in writing.

I've already got 1 in my mind. Just lazy to write it down. Do email me when you are done.

Regards,
Mr Wan

On same day that elderly dad dies of cancer...

Mum stops eating and dies too

By Arul John

November 14, 2007

MODERN world, modern marriages, modern mess - quickie divorces among young Singaporeans are on the rise, latest reports indicate.

Yet it often takes an old-fashioned marriage - 72 years to be exact - to add lustre to matrimony's tarnished image.

Mr Tan Sim Lian and Madam Teo Hwee Choo, both 92, were hardly apart during their years of marriage.

And when Mr Tan died last Saturday, his wife, Madam Teo, died later that same day.

Three weeks ago, Mr Tan, who was dying at a hospice, told his children his last wish: To see his wife for one last time.

His wife, her memory battered by illness, could not recognise him. The children had to place her hand in his.

'For nearly 10 minutes, they sat and looked at each other and said nothing.

'Later, I saw that both of them were at peace with themselves,' the couple's third child, Mr Tan Kok Chiang, said.

The elderly couple's coffins were placed side by side at their five-day wake at Whampoa Drive.

Mr Tan, 54, said his father had been battling stomach cancer for the past five months.

Last month, he was admitted to a hospice, where he died around 2am on Nov 10.

Mr Tan and his five siblings - two older brothers and three younger sisters - had earlier decided not to inform either parent if the other died, because they were afraid that the surviving parent could not bear the news.

So they kept the news of their father's death from their mother.

Mr Tan, a taxi driver, recalled: 'But I think my mother suspected something when we started removing his things from their room later that day.

REFUSED TO EAT

He added: 'She refused to eat her food or drink any water. She just sat in the room and watched the people moving things out.'

Around 8pm, Mr Tan's sister called him and said that their mother's breathing was becoming laboured.

The rest of the family rushed back to see her.

Madam Teo died at about 11.30pm.

Mr Tan said his parents came from farming families in a small town in Guangdong province in China.

After their arranged marriage, his father moved to Hong Kong and then to Singapore before World War II to find a better life.

They were reunited 12 years later.

His father sent for her after the war, when things were more settled.

They lived in a small attap house in a kampung at Jalan Rajah in the Balestier area.

The family then moved to a flat in Toa Payoh in the late '60s.

The couple moved in with their eldest son in Whampoa several years ago.

Mr Tan said that his best memories of his parents were of how much they loved and cared for each other.

He said: 'I never heard them shout at each other, although I am sure that they had their quarrels.

'Each of them would just try to convince the other of their position.'

Mr Tan said his parents always ate at least one meal together daily.

He recalled: 'When my father was working, my mother would wake up early in the morning to cook porridge for him.

'When he started working as a taxi driver, they would eat porridge together after his shift and then have dinner together later.

'My father would also insist that my mother eat more food and he would get very worried if she was not eating enough.

Said Mr Tan: 'Although I always bought enough food for each of them, my father always gave some of his food to my mother.

'After his retirement, my parents always ate together.'

The couple will be cremated today at Mandai Crematorium.

It seems they were determined that death would not keep them apart.

About 10 years ago, they bought adjacent niches so that their ashes could be placed together.