By yahoosingapore – October 2nd, 2010
http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/10/02/mrs-lee-kuan-yew-dies-aged-89/
Madam Kwa Geok Choo – wife of Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew and mother of PM Lee Hsien Loong – has died on Saturday at the age of 89.Kwa “passed away peacefully at home,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. It did not specify the cause of death.The Straits Times reports that she died with daughter, Lee Wei Ling, by her side at her Oxley Road home.Earlier in the day, her younger son, Lee Hsien Yang had come to visit. Her husband, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, was hospitalised earlier this week for a chest infection.PM Lee, who was on an official four-day visit to Belgium, immediately cut short his trip and flew back home with his wife, Ho Ching.Last month, MM Lee revealed that his companion of 63 years — they have been together since they were law students in London – had been bedridden for the last two years since she suffered a major brain haemorrhage in June 2008.He had shared that his most difficult moment is at the end of each day as he sits by the bedside of his wife, who had been unable to speak or move.“She understands when I talk to her, which I do every night,” he said. “She keeps awake for me; I tell her about my day’s work, read her favourite poems.”“I told her, ‘I would try and keep you company for as long as I can,” before adding, “I’m not sure who’s going first, whether she or me.”
Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and his wife Kwa Geok Choo attend a May Day rally in Singapore May 1, 2006.President SR Nathan and his wife issued a five-paragraph statement which paid tribute to Mrs Lee’s “greatness” as someone who had loyally stood by her husband, Lee Kuan Yew, through thick and thin.The statement praised her for being a ”legal luminary, as a mother of an illustrious family, and more than that for her stoic presence next to Mr Lee Kuan Yew during times of turbulence and tension in the many years of his political struggle.”The statement also said she was MM Lee’s constant “companion, confidante and counsel, and we may never fully appreciate the impact and influence she had in shaping Minister Mentor’s thinking and life.”
MM Lee and his wife Kwa Geok Choo celebrate his 80th birthday in Singapore on September 16, 2003. (Reuters)Reaction from Singaporeans was also swift as news of her death quickly spread on micro-blogging site Twitter.Some expressed shock such as @hellocharleto, who tweeted, “Omg. Lee Kuan Yew’s wife Kwa Geok Choo passed away. RIP”.
Others conveyed messages of condolences such as @herbertism who tweeted, “Rest in Peace mother of Singapore, Madam Kwa Geok Choo.”Yahoo Fit-to-Post readers were quick to write messages of condolences, leaving behind over 300 comments in the first few hours of her death.Among the best-rated comments was one by Chua Kai Shing, who wrote, “Mrs Lee Kuan Yew, behind every success comes an inspirational story. I’m sure we all know you as the great woman behind our beloved senior minister, you are that special someone he chose, and together you are the parents of modern Singapore. Rest in peace.”Another by Vodka wished that MM Lee would remain strong even after his long-time companion had passed.“Behind every successful man is a great woman and she had been the pillar of strength for her husband… May her soul now rest in peace. I hope that MM Lee will be strong and keep his motivation for life even though his partner has passed away,” he said.Madam Kwa was one of 8 children.A brilliant student at Methodist Girls’ School, she topped the 1936 Senior Cambridge Examination for the whole of Malaya and Singapore.At Raffles Institution, she caught the attention of a young Lee Kuan Yew when she gave him unexpectedly stiff competition for a Queen’s Scholarship.Their relationship grew through the Japanese Occupation and by 1944, love had truly blossomed and set in between the two.Mr Lee left to study law in England in 1946 after World War II and his then sweetheart joined him at Cambridge University a year later.The two married secretly on 23 December 1947 after she had just turned 27, and he was 24.Mrs Lee said once: “You can’t explain these things … He had tremendous aplomb, self-confidence, very jaunty, he was a handsome young man.”When they returned to Singapore in 1950, they tied the knot again, this time with their parents’ full knowledge.When Mr Lee got more involved in politics and became Singapore’s Prime Minister in 1959, Mrs Lee, her husband and her brother-in-law, Dennis Lee Kim Yew, founded the Lee & Lee law firm in 1955.She is survived by her husband, two sons and a daughter.Her eldest son is Lee Hsien Loong, Singapore’s current Prime Minister while her second son is Lee Hsien Yang, chairman of Fraser & Neave and Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore or CAAS.Her daughter is Lee Wei Ling, head of Singapore’s National Neuroscience Institute.
Matriarch of the Lee family, Kwa Geok Choo (centre) with her husband, Lee Kuan Yew (left) and son, PM Lee Hsien Loong. (AFP file photo)Although she shied away from a high profile, Mrs Lee’s contributions to Singapore had been most significant, and pivotal to its history.“I wanted someone my equal, not someone who needed looking after,” the elder Lee later explained in his autobiography.“She was a great source of strength and comfort,” Lee wrote, adding that his wife corrected the drafts of his dictated speeches.“I made a point, however, not to discuss the formulation of policies with her, and she was scrupulous in not reading notes or faxes that were sensitive,” he wrote.A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said her wake will be held at Sri Temasek – official residence of the Prime Minister located within the Istana grounds — on Monday and Tuesday from 10am to 5pm.A private funeral will take place on October 6 at Mandai Crematorium.
The family requests that no obituaries and no wreaths or flowers to be sent.
All donations will go to the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) Health Research Endowment Fund.Members of the public may call 6835 6614 for any queries.
I sincerely wish that her loved ones would remain strong and hope that they would smile to the fond memories that she had left behind.
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