REUNITED WITH HIS MOTHER
Ma, how are you?
These are his first words after 42 years apart
By Teh Jen Lee
November 07, 2006 Print Ready Email Article
HE almost didn't get to meet the mother he was yearning for all his life.
Three years ago, retiree Chua Thye Ann, 66, had a heart attack.
Three times, his heart stopped beating and three times he was revived.
Two Saturdays ago, he finally met his 84-year-old mother, Madam Sng Lay Keng, after 42 years.
--Chong Jun Liang
He said: 'Now I know the reason I survived. It was to see my birth mother again.'
The reunion came after The New Paper's report on 11 Oct of how Madam Sng lost touch with her son twice.
The first time was when she divorced Mr Chua's father. Mr Chua, the oldest of the couple's three children, was only 4 then.
In 1964, when Mr Chua was 24, he managed to find Madam Sng by tracing where her father's factory was. But after a few visits, Mr Chua lost contact again when he went abroad to work.
Madam Sng lost his phone number, and when she moved house, she had no way of informing him.
Madam Sng now lives in Lorong Ah Soo with a son from another marriage.
Last month, Madam Sng's god-daughter, Mrs Nancy Lim, called The New Paper after reading about Mr Peter Loh, who found his long-lost family after his story was published in The New Paper on 9 Sep.
The day after Madam Sng's story appeared, an anonymous caller contacted Mrs Lim and gave her the phone number of Mr Kevin Chua, 40, Mr Chua's son.
The younger Mr Chua was sceptical at first, but when he read the article and recognised the picture of his father in his 20s, he was convinced.
He had to break the news to his father gently because Mr Chua's heart condition means that he cannot get overly emotional.
'I had not heard my father talk about his mother. He probably thought she had passed away,' said Mr Kevin Chua, who works in the air force.
'When I told him, it took a while for him to take it in. But slowly, he began to cry with happiness.'
Leading up to the reunion dinner on 28 Oct, the elder Mr Chua said he had trouble sleeping because he kept thinking of what he would say to his mother.
'It has been so long, I never expected to see her again,' said Mr Chua, who used to work in shipping and trading.
'Growing up, there were times I would lie on my bed and wonder what it would be like to have my mother around. People at school would go 'mummy this' and 'mummy that'.
'I didn't get to do that.'
When he was 15, he dropped out of school and worked to support his siblings because his father and grandfather had both died within months of each other.
He took on a variety of odd jobs, including catching grasshoppers to sell.
'I did wish my mother was there with me, but I never blamed her for leaving. Even as a child, I knew she had a tough time at home,' said Mr Chua, declining to elaborate further.
The fact that he bears no grudges against his mum is clear from the tender way he comforted her at the reunion.
His wife, two grown-up children, daughter-in-law and 10-year-old granddaughter were also present to meet Madam Sng at the home of her god-daughter, Mrs Lim.
His first words to her were in Teochew: 'Ma, how are you?'
Instead of answering, Madam Sng began to cry.
In broken sentences, she tried to explain why she left, but Mr Chua gently comforted her.
'It has passed. The past should be erased because we have already gone through it,' he said.
At one point, he touched her right ear, wondering out loud at how similar their faces were.
He managed to hold back tears.
He said: 'If I cry, it would make it worse for her. I didn't want her to think about me and cry, as I had read in the newspaper report.
'I came to make her happy.'
He plans to visit his mum every Saturday from now on.
As it turns out, Mr Chua's daughter-in-law, Serene, is a talent manager with a casting company who has worked with Mrs Lim before.
Mrs Lim said: 'I've known Serene for about two years. If I had known that she was related to my godma's son, that would have saved us a lot of searching.'
Madam Sng was elated at the reunion. She said in Hokkien: 'Separation was very painful because he's my flesh and blood. For nine months, he was a part of me.
'I have been looking forward to this day. I want to thank my god-daughter and The New Paper for making it happen.'
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/st...16894,00.html? 
