(above picture: Zulina Yeo (left) and Nur Adilah Mohammad Adnan Tobing (center) have been close friends since their school days)

By Nurul Asyikin Moh Nasir, newsroom intern

SHE never knew her daughter took pillion rides on motorcycles.

Not until the girl came home with a helmet in her hand one day two weeks ago.

Immediately, Madam Zubaidah Endut questioned her 19-year-old daughter, Nurhafizah Johari.

Said Madam Zubaidah, 50, a clerk: "Fizah told me that her friend had just got herself a bike."

Despite her mother's concerns, Nurhafizah, a part-time ITE student and part-time assistant teacher at a pre-school, went out again to meet the friend, Nur Adilah Mohammad Adnan Tobing, later that night.

It was 13 Feb, the eve of Chinese New Year, and the girls had planned to have a girls' night out.

But several hours later, Adilah, 20, skidded and crashed the motorcycle on Bedok Reservoir Road.

Both she and Nurhafizah, who was riding pillion, were thrown off.

A police spokesman said the accident happened around 6.50amon14 Feb.

Both girls were found unconscious and taken to Changi General Hospital.

Nurhafizah came to after spinal surgery on 23 Feb, to find that Adilah was dead.

Madam Zubaidah said her daughter is unable to speak coherently now.

"She utters some words and then breaks down. She gets so depressed and even turned hysterical sometimes," she said.

It is painful for the mother to look at her daughter who used to be a cheerful girl.

It is also hard for her to respond to Nurhafizah, who has not understood what happened fully.

Said Madam Zubaidah: "She just knows it was a motorcycle accident and that her friend has passed away. She asked me whether she was the rider, but I had to remind her that she hasn't got any licence."

Madam Zubaidah understands that her daughter "paid a high price" but felt "such things were out of anyone's control".

She does not blame Adilah for the accident, but instead sympathises with her parents.

"It was heartbreaking to see both of them in the ICU. I could feel their pain when I found out that their daughter was struggling for life, while mine had a chance through surgery," she said.

Adilah,who is believed to have been a retail employee, died on Feb 23, her birthday.