By Huang Li Jie

When Mrs Dorothy Tay married Daniel Tay, founder of pastry chain Bakerzin, he was in debt from a failed $1-million business and too poor to buy her a wedding ring.

He was 26 and had incurred the huge debt when his wholesale bread and cake business flopped. She was then 23 and they had been dating for two years.

Mrs Dorothy Tay and her family  Click on thumbnail to view

Recalling the occasion, Mrs Tay, 36, said she knew what she was getting herself into. 'Family and friends were asking me to think twice but I knew he would become successful because he is good at baking. He has ambition and he picked himself up quickly after his business failed.'

And time has proven her right. Thirteen years on, he is chief executive of a successful patisserie chain with 11 stores in Singapore, six outlets in Indonesia and a $15-million revenue last year.

The couple own two Toyota cars and are moving from a three-room condominium apartment near Joo Chiat to a rented four-room terrace house in Meyer Road at the end of the month.

Mr Tay, 39, says: 'At the lowest point in my life, she stuck by me.'

Why marry when he did not have a penny to his name? 'I wanted to chung hei,' he says, using the Cantonese phrase for chasing away bad luck with an auspicious ceremony.

The way they were Mrs Dorothy Tay did not consider Daniel Tay to be boyfriend or marriage material when she first met him. This was because he behaved like a shao ye, or snooty young master...more

In 1996, the wholesale business he started with a few friends a year earlier ran into financial trouble and shut down.

He lost the $500,000 seed fund his father had lent him, along with the latter's traditional baking shop in Marine Parade, which had been converted into the retail arm of the wholesale business. It had to be sold off to pay his debts.

Banks were hounding him for payment and his ties with his father were strained.

Mrs Tay could have walked away from their relationship but she chose to stay.

She dipped into her meagre pay as a junior graphic designer and sneaked money into his wallet. She also tried to patch things up between father and son.

She says matter-of-factly: 'His business had failed, his family was upset with him and he was depressed. I did think of breaking up with him but if I left him, he would have killed himself.'

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