Time stood still since last Saturday night after news of the demise of Mrs Lee Kuan Yew nee Madam Kwa Geok Choo harboured around my conscious mind and weary heart.
I recalled reading Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s latest interview transcript with NYT a week after Raya - how enviously happy I was to see a man of his stature could express his love and devotion to his beloved wife in such beautiful and moving words. A companionship that matches only Will and Ariel Durant’s lifelong love story – that is priceless.
I imagine her attentively listening to him sharing ideas to transform once-a-Third-World-Port and its people, during those early days, as if following what my dearest Madam Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country”. For that, I admire her womanly quality.
I imagine her drafting Singapore Labour Foundation Act so tenderly so that her nation's union members and their families could have better access to rights and benefits. For that, I respect her comradeship.
That night, like many more nights of prayers and tears I had before, I prayed for God to give Mr. Lee Kuan Yew strength to go through his loss because he must have felt like one of his wings has been clipped, that he can’t fly up but down. But down he must go if that would make him humblest and most loving of man, remembering God's graciousness towards both of them.
My heartfelt condolence to Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his family. May her soul rest in peace.
In memory of their true love, here’s Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, which I believe, must be one of those poems Mr. Lee read to his beloved.
I recalled reading Mr. Lee Kuan Yew’s latest interview transcript with NYT a week after Raya - how enviously happy I was to see a man of his stature could express his love and devotion to his beloved wife in such beautiful and moving words. A companionship that matches only Will and Ariel Durant’s lifelong love story – that is priceless.
I imagine her attentively listening to him sharing ideas to transform once-a-Third-World-Port and its people, during those early days, as if following what my dearest Madam Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country”. For that, I admire her womanly quality.
I imagine her drafting Singapore Labour Foundation Act so tenderly so that her nation's union members and their families could have better access to rights and benefits. For that, I respect her comradeship.
That night, like many more nights of prayers and tears I had before, I prayed for God to give Mr. Lee Kuan Yew strength to go through his loss because he must have felt like one of his wings has been clipped, that he can’t fly up but down. But down he must go if that would make him humblest and most loving of man, remembering God's graciousness towards both of them.
My heartfelt condolence to Mr. Lee Kuan Yew and his family. May her soul rest in peace.
In memory of their true love, here’s Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116, which I believe, must be one of those poems Mr. Lee read to his beloved.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
2 comments:
Hello Fi-Sha, really sad see Mrs Lee's passing away.
She was as I remember a great lady.
Stood by her man all the way....
Thank you for posting this as otherwise I wouldn't know.
Have a nice day, Lee.
She was the one who drafted the separation clause that ensured the island continued to get water after the umbilical cord was cut.
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