FAREWELL TO AUNT DR. MARIA OON CHIEW SENG (106 yrs). 
Born 1916. Departed 31 March 2022.

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 Aunt was one one of a kind in her time. She had cared for many poor students, and many who could not pay their bills or tuition  fees. When her mental condition declined, she was surrounded by loving day and night caregivers. Her domestic helper, Atika who had cared for her since 2000, continued to care for her,  just as she had done for many others in the past.

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At 106, she had contributed a lot to the world. In the early days of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in 1946, she was the first batch of women graduates in Medicine under the Queen's Scholarship and obtained her MRCOG.

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She received numerous awards, PBM, PBB, Presidents Award for Volunteerism and Philantropy, in 2013 and was the founder of Dementia Care and Research in Singapore, with the first dementia home, Apex Harmony Lodge established in 1995.  In 2021, she received the highest award, being the Doctor of Letters by the National University of Singapore from President Halimah .

She looked after me when we escaped from WWII bombings in Singapore in 1942 to Bombay. While there, she continued studying Medicine at the Lady Harding Medical College for Women. Returning home, she was the first batch to graduate in Medicine, even before there was a university. 

Five days ago she, stopped eating and clenched her teeth fiercely, around the same time, she also lost complete vision. As I held her hands which were blue, and cold, (most of the day) and almost pulseless, she was still aware I was there with her, as she left this world. Her mission is now finally complete. 

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Addendum
Mother Mary was her favourite and she chose María as her baptism name in 2009 and went to the HOLYLAND during Christmas in the same year. She went to Lourdes in 2013 with our Order of Malta contingent and experienced a short period of recovery in her hearing though transient.

We played the “Ave María“ by Giroud on piano (Dawn Kwok) and violin (Knight Dr Peter Chew) at her Funeral Mass at 12.30pm, Monday 4 April at the Catholic Church of St Ignatius where she was baptised.

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She used to pray the rosary on her knees and sleep with piano music of Ave María and other hymns.