If not for her, there wouldn't be me

She is grieving for the midwife who brought her into the world and became her mother.

Ms Pearly Chin's birth mother, who had wanted a boy, had rejected her when she was born in 1972.

The woman even asked Madam Chin Siat Keow to sell the baby, but the midwife did not have the heart to do it and adopted the child instead.

So when retired nurse Chin, 81, was hit by a tipper truck on Saturday and died from her injuries, Ms Chin, 41, felt the loss of a dear mother.

Madam Chin was hit near the junction of Henderson Road and Jalan Bukit Merah at about 12.40pm that day.

She was taken to the Singapore General Hospital, where she later died.

Ms Chin, a secretary, recounted the story of how she ended up with Madam Chin.

"She (the birth mum) asked Mummy if she could help sell me. Mummy had done many deliveries, but somehow, she felt a bond (with me)."

Ms Chin said Madam Chin, who was single, then went home, discussed it with her family and took her back on the ninth day, giving her birth mother a $2,000 token.

Ms Chin lived with Madam Chin and Madam Chin's sister, Ms Shirley Chin, 63, who is single, in a Haji Lane shophouse in Kampong Glam.

To "balance things out," she called Madam Chin "Mummy" and her sister "Daddy".

And Mummy, said Ms Chin, was very strict. "I couldn't watch TV and eat at the same time. Even now, when I'm alone, I eat at the dining table.

"For ting xie (Chinese spelling tests), she would copy out all the phrases and paste them on my bathroom mirror, so I'd have to look at them before going to school."

It was only in Primary 6 that "Mummy" first broached the topic of her being adopted.

"I'd actually suspected it, as I carried the same surname as her. When I asked her where my father was, she'd say he was a sailor who'd never come back.

"As my birth certificate stated it was a home delivery, I tried the address but found the building no longer existed."

Over the years, Ms Chin said she never wanted to know who her birth mother was, and repeatedly told Mummy as much.

"I'd tell her, 'I'm happy with you as my mother'. "A few years ago, she said she was getting old and suggested putting me in touch - she said she still had my birth mother's contact.

"But I just said 'no', and changed the subject." Ms Chin said Madam Chin meant everything to her.

"If not for her, there wouldn't be me. Who knows what would have happened if I were still in my birth mother's hands?"

TOLD HER EVERYTHING

Ms Chin said she told her adopted mother everything - even when she had her first boyfriend.

When Ms Chin married and had children in 2001 and 2004, her adopted mother handled both confinements.

"She did the marketing and cooked for me. At night, she'd stay up to look after the kids - this was when she was 70!"

Ms Chin said she was not sure why her adopted mother was in Jalan Bukit Merah that day, but said it may have been because she took the wrong bus.

Madam Chin may have wanted to go to Whampoa from her Tessensohn Road flat, as she had friends there, she said.

She said she had often reminded Madam Chin, who was less than 1.5m tall, to watch out for buses and not walk behind them.

"She was very independent, she'd go out every other day. The only operation she ever had was for cataracts and if this didn't happen, she'd be around for at least another five years.

"I never imagined she would go in such a way."

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