Woman puts up CNY decorations for her widowed dad

For three years now, Ms Linda Cheng has followed the same routine to prepare for Chinese New Year.

The 54-year-old goes all over Singapore, Johor Baru and Batam to look for decorations that she can put up during the festive period.

This year, she spent about $200 buying items to beautify the space outside her home at Bedok Reservoir Road.

Ms Cheng, who is married with a son, told The New Paper: "Every year, around this period, my neighbours look forward to seeing how I can outdo the previous year's decorations."

Over the last week, she fashioned floor mats into heart-shaped decorations that she, with the help of her husband and son, hung on the walls near the lift landing.

"I didn't want to limit the decorations to the space outside my home. So I even decorated the stairs and the lift landing to spread the festive cheer to everyone, including my non-Chinese neighbours," she said.

It was one of her neighbours who sent pictures of Ms Cheng's decorations to TNP.

Ms Nabilah Mohamed Nasir Khan said: "She worked really hard at night even though she had a full day of work to make sure that the decorations are up on time. And the result is nothing short of beautiful."

This year, the beauty adviser also had goat plushies to usher in the year of the goat.

Ms Cheng said that she has been putting up these elaborate decorations for three years.

PERSONAL

And it started for a personal reason.

Ms Cheng's mother had also put in a lot of effort into decorating her home, both inside and outside. She died in 2003.

Ms Cheng's father would often sit outside their home and admire the decorations.

Said Ms Cheng: "I wanted my father to be happy so I did what my mum would do so he would feel more at home when he visited us."

And when she saw him so happy looking at her decorations, she was encouraged to do better the next year.

"Now, my father visits almost every day during the Chinese New Year period and he will sit outside and be reminded of my mother when he looks at the decorations."

This article was first published on February 25, 2015.
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