People signing and watching the live telecast of the state funeral service that was broadcast on four television screens set up for a memorial service yesterday at Kreta Ayer Square. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
AT AGE 17, she was given an ultimatum by her father who hawked soya sauce: get a job to help the family or get married.
Madam Choo Miew Yong, illiterate and the eldest of five children, had no desire to get hitched at such a young age. Desperate, she turned to Dr Goh Keng Swee, then the MP for Kreta Ayer.
He found her a job in the Works Brigade, formed in 1960 to take jobless young people off the streets and give them work in bricklaying, farming, water pipe repairs and other vocational skills.
Although her daily wage was $1.50, she remains grateful to the man who helped her avoid a teen marriage.
The 68-year-old, who eventually married in her 30s, yesterday recounted in Mandarin: 'He was concerned I might not be able to do the hard work. I said I would do whatever it takes. It was tough work but the job gave me free meals, too.'
Memories of that single encounter in 1960 with the late Dr Goh flooded back to Madam Choo at a memorial service yesterday, organised by the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng Citizens' Consultative Committee.
