Vale - Pooi-Cheng, Leong (1931 - 2015)

By Khen Lim

Vale: Pooi-Cheng, Leong (1931-2015)

After spending ten days at Pantai and despite the loving attention of the nurses and our trusted oncologist, it has always been mom’s constant desire to be back at home, the home that she had built with my dad in a marriage that has lasted a beautiful 58 years.

Now she is home and resting, free from pain and freed to be with Christ. We are of course saddened that she could not see the twins let alone touch them or have a picture taken with them, but the consolation is that she is no longer ravaged by the cancer that took her away from her family. She is at peace and my whole family certainly knows she is up there with Christ, looking at us with all the affection that she is so well known for.

Her generosity in spirit, her kindness and consideration for others is legendary. It is so widespread that the whole of Pantai Hospital, from the valet boys to the front admission counter, the nurses at the Oncology Day Centre, the nursing staff at the second and third floor wards. The story gets even more pronounced when in her brief visits to the KPJ Hospital for her radiotherapy, her heart had caught up with a clinical assistant there who made it her point to not just remember mom but to made the effort to visit my mom at Pantai just to be with her.

I also like to take this opportunity to thank a few people on behalf of my family: 

• The oncologist Dr Zul and his team of dedicated nurses, Ms Chan, Ms Liew, Ms Farrana, 
• The gastro-enterologist Dr Harjinder Singh
• The haemotologist Dr Teh Hiok Seng
• The dietician Ms Rachel Lee
• The nursing staff at the second and third floors
• The front admission counter girls especially Ms Ferrin
• The private night nurses Anis, Amira and Gayathri, including 
• The valet boys, Jumat, Ahmad and Amir

...all of whom work at Pantai Hospital Ipoh and were exceptional and exemplary to my mother and my family. 

And with all of that in mind, I have now sent my last letter to my mom. This is how the letter goes:

Dearest Mom

It’s good to know that you are finally with Christ, the one who saved you when you called on Him for the first time three years ago to rescue you from your coughing as you were wheeled into the operating theatre at Selayang Hospital. You can now look at His face and let Him lead you into heaven. You can now see and experience the splendour of God’s glory and see the Father for the first time. It is such a privilege that you are now able to do all of this and we are sure you are revelling in the delight.

Now that you have left us, mom, we feel the suddenness and some of us are still reeling from the quick turn of events. No doubt there is now a gaping hole in our family, a hole that is impossible to fill. All of us have poignant vivid images of you everywhere we look in our home. For me, I see you walking in your bright green flip-flops, searching in your right trouser pocket for your room keys. I see you having loads of fun playing your favourite tunes on the electric piano. I see you walking ahead of Marianne and I, holding dad’s hands as we make our way to some food court. I see you watering the plants in the garden, squatting down manicuring the grass with nothing but a pair of scissors. Only you would have such a meticulous way of doing this.

Chong and I are proud and privileged to be your children and you to be our mother. When we were young, we already knew your lovingkindness but it’s only when we became older and married that we fully understood how you define family love and how you fiercely protected us from harm. Through thick and thin, through our triumphs and darkest hours, you have always been there with us. And no matter how old we are, we always remained your boys no matter what.

Marianne, my beloved wife, cherishes you so intensely. In the number of years she has come to know you, she cannot think of anything else about you than that you embody all that love is. She grieves now as much as we are. But I’m sure that your love and kindness for her will live forever in her very being and it will be passed on to the twin girls that will come into our lives on the 29^th of this month.

And from that day onwards, dad will also have a new sense of purpose, a renewed sense of desire to play the role of the loving and doting grandfather in their lives. He will know in his heart of hearts what you will expect him to do in caring for your new granddaughters. And they will be truly beautiful because in them, your love will shine. In them, your grace will be pervasive. Dad will get to see and play with them, teach them and tell them who their grandmother was and how wonderful she has been in all our lives. Dad’s role will be new but I know for sure that from above, you will guide him to perfection.

Mom, we are slowly coming to terms that even as you are no longer with us in person, you live in our hearts and minds. It will take some time as the pain of longing still resonates. But it will surely come. In the meantime, I want to tell you, mom, don’t worry about us. We are going to be okay. Chong, Marianne and I promise you from our hearts that we will love dad with everything we’ve got. We will stay united as a family. From you, mom, we have more than enough love to share around not just within our family but with all our friends, our relatives and everyone we come across in our lives.

We will honour you by adopting your kindness, humility and generosity. And it is by doing all of this that we know you will live in our lives forever.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ words are truly appropriate in this moment. He says:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”

(Jn 14:1-4 NLT)

Mom, I love you. It’s not goodbye. I will see you again.