Even though they were oceans apart, they never failed to talk to each other over the phone every day.
Madam A. Meenachi, 48, will never forget her last conversation with her daughter, Miss Geetha Singarabiru, on Nov 13.
Said the hospital nurse: "Before she hung up, she told me, 'I love you, mum'. And that was the last time I heard her voice."
Miss Geetha, 28, died of a lung infection in her Suffolk home in the United Kingdom the next day.
The former student of Braddell-Westlake Secondary School left Singapore for the UK in 2003 soon after her O levels. She had been living and working there as a freelance journalist since.
At Miss Geetha's wake yesterday, Madam Meenachi told The New Paper that her daughter's passion was journalism and she had worked hard to improve herself in the field.
"She loved writing and was in the midst of writing a children's book and her autobiography when she passed away.
"I'll see to it that at least one of them gets published," she said.
She added that her daughter had caught a lung infection about three years ago.
Concerned for her health, Madam Meenachi convinced her to return to Singapore in 2012.
Heaving a sigh, the calm but weary-looking mother-of-two said: "She became stronger with my love and care.
"One year later, she insisted on returning to the UK as she missed her friends and her job. So she left in August last year."
Miss Geetha's brother, Mr Parthiban Singarabiru, 24, said the family last saw her in August when they visited her in the UK.
SHOCK
The second-year student at the Singapore Institute of Technology said: "She seemed fine and healthy then. None of us expected her to go away so soon."
He was home on Nov 14 when he received a phone call from one of his uncles.
Sensing that something was amiss, he passed the phone to his mother and was shocked to find out that his beloved sister had died.
Madam Meenachi said: "Geetha was found unconscious in her bathroom in the home which she shared with her godfather and uncle.
"They called a doctor, but Geetha was already gone."
Her body arrived in Singapore yesterday afternoon.
She will be cremated at Mandai Crematorium Hall 1 at 5.45pm today.
ashaffiq@sph.com.sg
This article was first published on Nov 28, 2014.
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