TAKE a walk in Ang Mo Kio Town Garden East at night and you will see young couples getting cosy on the benches, stools and playground facilities.

Hang around till about 11pm and the lovebirds flit away, leaving a relatively empty park.

And then you see an older couple.

They walk slowly into a small pavilion carrying a few precious possessions in rustling plastic bags and a faded grey haversack.

They set down their things and begin to wash something with water from a plastic bottle.

The washed items, it can be seen in the morning, are a face towel and soiled underwear.

Then, after laying some newspapers on the cold, stone floor, they cuddle as they lie down.

They cover themselves from the night air with a thin bed sheet.

When the sun has risen and the park is brimming with joggers and tai chi practitioners, the couple sleep on.

A jogger runs into the pavilion and practices yoga, breathing deeply and making guttural noises as he stretches.

Still, they do not stir.

Finally, around 8.45am, a skinny woman wearing flower print shorts, bundled in a sweater, emerges from under the sheet.

She combs her hair before proceeding to light a hand-rolled cigarette.

Minutes later the man wakes up, and they slowly start to pack their things, while a park cleaner begins sweeping the area.

Among their few belongings are a small orange radio, Chinese CDs, a comb and two bottles of traditional Chinese cough mixture.

The woman, who gave her name only as Ms Tan, also has a small handbag in which she keeps tissues and hair pins.

They have been sleeping like this every night for the past month, according to the man, Mr Ng Kian Heng.

However, a few women in their 60s, who exercise there regularly in the mornings, said the couple have been there for many months.

Mr Ng, 37, said they were earlier living with a friend who had an HDB flat near the AMK Hub.

After he lost his job at a factory and Ms Tan, 46, lost her job selling clothes, they could not pay rent and their friend wanted them out.

'Sometimes, we even sleep outside the door of my friend's flat,' Mr Ng said. When asked if he had his own home, Mr Ng said he had a flat in Bedok North, but could not go back there. He added that he was planning to try going back soon.

DAD CHASED THEM OUT

It appeared that his father, who lives there, had chased the couple out.

We paid a visit to flat and met the father, a 72-year-old deaf-mute.

And the following is what we could make out from his animated gestures.

He has three children, and the other two are daughters who have got married and moved out.

He divorced their mother after she left him, and lives alone now.

He did not like his son taking Ms Tan up to the three-room flat.

He claimed that he had given the couple money, and that they never returned it. And he also claimed that they messed up the spare bedroom and left him to clean it.

So he wanted them out of the place.

A neighbour said the couple were not married, and the older Mr Ng seemed certain that his son had no children of his own.

However, the couple said they have three children.

When asked if he had ever gone to seek help from any aid agencies like the Community Development Councils, the younger Mr Ng said he had not, though he claimed that he had put their two younger children in a home.

According to Ms Tan, she has three sons, aged 21, 8, and 2.

She proceeded to show the scars on her stomach from the caesarean births.

'We could not feed them so I sent the younger ones to a children's home, and the oldest one is working in China,' Mr Ng said, in a mix of Mandarin and English.

When asked for the names of the children, and the details of the home the younger ones had been sent to, the couple responded with only blank looks.

But the almost toothless Mr Ng said he wants to take the boys back once he can stand on his own feet.

Mr Ng said he and Ms Tan earn a living by collecting aluminium drink cans, cardboard boxes and newspapers around the Ang Mo Kio area, which they sell to rag and bone men.

Each day, they can make about $5.

They eat frugally, usually at a coffee shop outside Ang Mo Kio hub.

Mr Ng said he does not wish to sleep at the park for much longer.

'Soon, when I can, I want to go back home.

'But now I cannot,' he said.

This story was first published in The New Paper on 26 May 2008.