Lee Wei Ling’s passing sparks fond memories, heartfelt tributes and sympathy from Singaporeans for the Lee family

SINGAPORE: Lee Wei Ling, the daughter of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, passed away on Wednesday (Oct 9). Dr Lee was a neurologist and had served as the director of the National Neuroscience Institute. Born on Jan 9, 1955, she was 69 when she died.

Both of Dr Lee’s brothers noted her death on Wednesday morning. In a Facebook post, Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who was three years older than his sister, posted a photo from their childhood, where Dr Lee, still a toddler, is seen held by her brother.

In his post, he noted her academic excellence from a young age, her love for animals, and her medical studies at the National University of Singapore. He added that she was the “doctor in the family” whom family members turned to for big and small health matters.

“When I had lymphoma, she took a close interest in my treatment and progress. One day, at our weekly family lunch at Oxley Road, one of her nephews came with a tummy ache. She did a quick examination, suspected appendicitis, and sent him to be properly examined.

She turned out to be right,” wrote SM Lee.

He also paid tribute to his sister’s character, describing her as fiercely loyal, sympathetic toward underdogs, and active in mobilizing against unfairness or suspected wrongdoing. He added that Dr Lee had been “a fighter.”

SM Lee also wrote about how Dr Lee had kept an eye on their parents as they aged but noted how “a shadow fell between my siblings and me” after the founding Prime Minister had passed.

At the end of his post, he wrote about Dr Lee’s illness, saying she bore it with “her usual fortitude and stoicism… I will deeply miss Ling.”

SM Lee’s wife, Ho Ching, also posted on Facebook on Wednesday morning. She shared her husband’s post and wrote, in a separate one, “You are now free and at peace.”

Dr Lee’s younger brother, Lee Hsien Yang, was the first to break the news, announcing Dr Lee’s passing in a Facebook post at 5:49 am on Oct 9.

In his announcement, he said that in lieu of flowers, donations to charities close to Dr Lee’s heart would be most welcome and that details of the funeral and wake arrangements would follow.

There has since been an outpouring of sympathies toward their family, including from notable Singaporeans such as diplomat and lawyer Tommy Koh, Manpower Minister Tan See Leng, Mayor Denise Phua, House Speaker Seah Kian Peng, and MP Tan Kiat How.

Prime Minister Lawerence Wong wrote that he had never met Dr Lee but paid tribute to her illustrious career as a pediatric neurologist, epileptologist, and head of Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s neuroscience department.

“Throughout her career, she was unswerving in her focus on patient welfare and medical ethics,” he expressed his thoughts about Dr Lee. /TISG

Read also: Dr Lee Wei Ling diagnosed with rare brain disorder that does not have a cure