Four days after Mdm Ong Bee Eng’s accident with an e-scooter that caused severe injuries to her, has passed away.
She collided into an e-scooter in Bedok North on September 21, and was reportedly in critical condition after she sustained severe brain injuries and suffered from multiple fractures.
The elderly lady was put on life support, and according to media reports, doctors advised them to take her off of life support, but the family wanted her to pass away naturally. The police reported her death on Wednesday, September 25.
Her niece, Chinfung Ko wrote about the passing of the elderly woman on social media, adding that she had been cycling for more than 30 years with no accidents.
Her niece’s full post:
On 21st September 2019, I left the hospital at 9:30pm after visiting my critically-ill grandma. I then made my way to my youngest aunt’s house, to look for my niece and nephew and hoping my (eldest aunt) dayi who would always cycle to my youngest aunt’s house to find us or pass my mama some grocceries that she had bought for us — but that day didn’t come… because she didn’t make it back to find us.
The next time I finally saw her was at Changi General Hospital, where she laid in the ICU ward covered in bruises, and blood was flowing excessively out of her ears. The doctors told our family that she could not hear nor see us, and that we have to be prepared for the worse. The injuries that dayi sustained left her brain squashed and her face covered with cuts and bruises — I could no longer recognise her as she laid still on the hospital bed. I will never forget the moment I saw her lying motionlessly in the CGH A&E ward. My fingers turned stiff, and I cried so hard that I couldn’t speak. Every single time my family visited the ICU ward, we would cry and hope for a miracle to happen.
As a family, we had to make a life and death decision for dayi and we decided not to pull the plug on her because we want to send her off naturally. We know that her time with us on this world may be limited, but we treasure every second that we have left with her.
Ong Bee Eng may be a name that is unfamiliar to the majority of Singapore, but they mean a lot to the family. My childhood was always filled with memories of her, but now we can no longer gather at her house without her anymore. Her house will no longer be filled with her loud and melodious voice, we can no longer hear her parking her bicycle outside the house, and most importantly she can’t hear us call her 大姨 dayi anymore.
No one will ever call mama at 10pm to chit chat everyday anymore. Papa used to jokingly laugh at mama, asking why does my dayi have to call her every single day. My dayi once told me it is because if she doesn’t hear my mum’s voice she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night. Mama is trying very hard to cope with this accident. We still have grandma waiting for us to visit her again as a whole family, but I guess it will never happen anymore.
Dayi is one of the most generous person, even though she is not rich. Every Chinese New Year she will spend a few days making her signature pineapple tarts for her friends and relatives to gift it to them and also preparing steamboat for us. She has always been a very loving aunt to all of us and even to my cousin kids. When I was young, I grew up with a few of my cousins and dayi will always pamper us with bicycle rides and McDonald’s Happy Meal. She would always ask us, “你们要吃汉堡包吗? 大姨去买.”( you want to eat burger ? Aunt go buy for you) Dayi also loved to offer people green tea whenever we go her house. 开冰箱就有绿茶但是现在没有了(if you were to open the fridge there is always green tea but now no one will stock up green tea for us anymore)
All the young kids have been calling nai nai 奶奶 and Bee Eng mama to wake up to play with them. Dayi is not just well loved by us, many people who stay in Bedok love her too because of all the good things she brought to the neighborhood.
As I write this post, I’m hoping that any witnesses who saw the accident would reach out to me or my cousin because there will not be a day that we won’t stop thinking about what happened to dayi. Was it the PMD rider’s fault? Was it the 50km/h? Was it because he modified his PMD vehicle? Was it because he ferried someone else on his PMD vehicle? Were the actions of a 20-year-old PMD rider worth my da yi’s injuries? I sincerely hope that he is recovering well from his fractured hand, while we, the family members of Ong Bee Eng, are still trying to accept the fact that his actions put her in a coma, and we are praying hard for a miracle to happen.Ah khai, ah mei, ah wei, ah xin, ah bi, ah zhi, ah pang jingfang, ah ken miss you dayi.
https://www.facebook.com/chinfung.ko/posts/10157446634822170
/TISG