Farewell, Bee Hooi...

Farewell, Bee Hooi.  And may you rest in eternal peace.
We really miss you...

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Sunday March 30, 2008

In death, she saves lives

By TAN SIN CHOW and CAROLYN OOI

PENANG: Anaesthetist Dr Tan Bee Hooi was a staunch believer in donating organs to save life.

And when she died, her corneas, heart, kidneys and liver were harvested for patients waiting for transplants in France and other European countries.

“That would give her a deep and abiding interest to serve fellow human beings,” said her father Datuk Tan Gin Soon.

“As a staunch Buddhist, she also believed it was more blessed to give than to receive. I feel happy that even in her death, she could give others a new lease of life,” Tan said in a telephone interview from Paris, France.

Bee Hooi underwent a surgery related to arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in her brains at the Fondation Rothschild Hospital in Paris, France, on March 11 under the care of Professor Jacques Moret, a world-renowned interventional neuroradiologist.

However, she succumbed to complications from the surgery and was pronounced dead on Wednesday.

AVM is a congenital disorder caused by abnormal development of blood vessels.

Her father said Bee Hooi, a medical graduate of University of Sydney, had always expressed her wish to donate her organs.

Tan, a Penang Rotary Club past-president and Penang Youth Council past-president, described Bee Hooi, a doctor with Penang Hospital, as committed and caring.

“Despite her busy schedule, she also found time to help others through social works and volunteered her services at the Mahindrama Temple at Kampar Road,” he said, adding that Bee Hooi told him to look after the family before she died.

Bee Shin, 26, said her eldest sister was a strong-willed person.

Her mother, Khor Mooi Looi, 61, a retired teacher, said Bee Hooi had wanted to open the first pain management clinic at Penang General Hospital if her operation was successful.

Malaysia's Ambassador to France Datuk S. Thanarajasingam described Bee Hooi as a truly remarkable woman.

“Even in death, she has given a lifeline to others,” he said.

Bee Hooi’s remains are scheduled to reach Penang International Airport at Bayan Lepas today. The single-mother left behind two sons, Tan Xin Yeng, five, and Tan Xing San, seven.

Back row, center.
During happier times with 2 sisters (standing right) parents, grandma (sitting left), grand-aunt, grand-uncle and friend.

A Lady named ROSE

After reading this forwarded story, I feel like quitting this crummy job and going back to my drawing board and paint brushes…





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The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn't already know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder.

I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.

She said, 'Hi handsome. My name is Rose. I'm eighty-seven years old. Can I give you a hug?'

I laughed and enthusiastically responded, 'Of course you may!' and she gave me a giant squeeze.

'Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?' I asked.

She jokingly replied, 'I'm here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of kids...'

'No seriously,' I asked. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.

'I always dreamed of having a college education and now I'm getting one!' she told me.

After class we walked to the student union building and shared a chocolate milk shake.

We became instant friends. Every day for the next three months we would leave class together and talk nonstop. I was always mesmerized listening to this 'time machine' as she shared her wisdom and experience with me.

Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.

At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I'll never forget what she taught us. She was introduced and stepped up to the podium. As she began to deliver her prepared speech, she dropped her three by five cards on the floor.

Frustrated and a little embarrassed she leaned into the microphone and simply said, 'I'm sorry I'm so jittery. I gave up beer for Lent and this whiskey is killing

me! I'll never get my speech back in order so let me just tell you what I know.'

As we laughed she cleared her throat and began, ' We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

There are only four secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor every day. You've got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die.

We have so many people walking around who are dead and don't even know it!

There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up.

If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don't do one productive thing, you will turn twenty years old. If I am eighty-seven years old and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn eighty-eight.

Anybody can grow older. That doesn't take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. Have no regrets.

The elderly usually don't have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.'

She concluded her speech by courageously singing 'The Rose.'

She challenged each of us to study the lyrics and live them out in our daily lives. At the year's end Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago.

One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.

Over two thousand college students attended her funeral in tribute to the wonderful woman who taught by example that it's never too late to be all you can possibly be.

The Songkok Issue? - Let's change mindset too.

If PROTOCOL says, to be an Anak Bangsa Malaysia, one has to wear a songkok, I'd proudly wear it!  But don't get me wrong, it's only for protocol in the Royal Palace.  Nobody's telling us to wear it all the time.

We can’t seem to get over the fact that this should no longer be regarded as a symbolic submission of one to another culture.  Are we going to remain so chauvinistic so much so that any request to wear a songkok is like kow-towing to another community?  The days of this cultural stance created by political/racial chauvinism is of the bygone era should now be discarded.  Those days are gone for good.  We’ve just begun a new chapter last week.

Our younger generation, especially the girls, who grew up without our cultural baggage have gone ahead and dress themselves in baju kurung or saris without any inhibitions.  If we can dress up as westerners, why can’t we change our minds on this one?

Or maybe I’m seeing this issue from a too simplistic angle?  Maybe for the sake of going forward as a nation, all forms should be less emphasized than the substance?

Back to square one?

I guess our happiness is short-lived.  Something's brewing in Perak.  I hope the DAP guys stop thinking like they're back in their caves.  Thinking through their wrong ends!!!  We thought we've just got pass the racial and religious hurdles set up by years of BN grip on power.

I hope it's the work of some hacker...

Get On The Job!

Daddy says: Get on with the job! And the son says: Yes Sir... I'll call up Pak Lah for the money

Meanwhile in the loser's camp, the finger pointing doesn't stop even as they licked their wounds....

Malaysia has today matured

Watching the results of yesterday’s national elections coming in over the internet, I was thinking; the internet has helped us win this war in a big way.  Those incumbents who were busy plundering the national coffers thought that bloggers were not worth wasting their time on now realized too late, progress has caught up with them.  They found themselves swept away by the tides of change.

With 5 states taken from them and less than 2/3s majority in the Dewan Rakyat, the ruling coalition has now no choice but to come to terms with the democratic reality that they can’t have their cake and eat it too.  Malaysia has today matured to become a true democratic nation with this one election that makes history.  A direct result of this will be when all states whether they are opposition held or otherwise, should have their fair allocation of development funds and opportunities. 

The fear factor is removed, the discrimination abolished and the playing field is leveled.  Whoever performs will stay in 'power' and whoever goes to sleep shall be kicked in the butt or shown the door.  We have dreamed of this day.  It has become reality.  Long live Malaysia.  And thanks to a cohesive opposition who finally saw a common ground and used it well.

Like the legendary phoenix that rose from the ashes, the leaders of our current opposition groups have, in each of them, at least one who has gone through the test of fire and brimstone and returned to fight another day.  Or some have persevered through the toughest of battles to see now the triumph they have long fought for. And each one should have learned his lessons well. All have also learned from the history of this nation enough not to repeat the same destructive lessons. Their collective triumph now and their cooperation after this, is our hope for the future. We hope they continue to treasure those lessons learnt.

We are seeing the dawn of a new day.