[ad_1]
Phang (right) prepares the joss newspaper as his teenage nieces help him burn it for his loved ones at the Sibu morgue.
SIBU (Jan 3): 56-year-old Phang Wei Beng, looking pale and tired, is busy burning money in a half-cut metal barrel at the Sibu morgue.
With the help of two of her teenage nieces, she asked them to burn the money or joss paper (spiritual paper) slowly, piece by piece according to Chinese customs, to make sure that her loved ones had a safe trip to the underworld.
Phang then went on to talk to his brother-in-law and asked him to go find some relatives, before speaking to a representative of a funeral service provider.
Nothing can be more heartbreaking than seeing this man trying to give the best of his ability for a proper funeral for his loved ones who were tragically taken from him.
“I’m fine,” he said when the reporters approached him, but admitted he was stunned.
Looking at his calm face, one can only guess the depth of his grief following the tragic incident at Triso Ferry Point that claimed the lives of his wife and two children on Friday.
His wife Lorna Ting, 33, and their two children, Alvin, 12, and Wallace, seven, died after a four-wheel drive vehicle they were traveling in with six other family members sank in the Batang Lupar River last Friday.
Also perished in the tragedy were Lorna’s older sister, Siti Aishah Abdullah, 36, and her five children, Mohd Aiman Mohd Hamzah, seven, Muhd Mustaqin, five, Khairunnisa, 14, Nor Shuhada, 16, and Mohd Ahmad, four months. They were on their way to Kuching to send the daughters of Siti Aishah to a madrassa school.
“I am trying to raise some money to continue the funeral and I will choose the most affordable option,” he said.
Phang confirmed that the bodies of his loved ones would be cremated and that the ashes would be interred at Nirvana Memorial Park in Sibu on Tuesday.
Dozens of relatives of various races and religious backgrounds, from Sibu and Kapit, were at the morgue to pay their last respects, and were seen giving their words of encouragement to Lorna’s mother, Munah Agon, 58, who has been devastated as a result of the incident.
Munah, who was riding in another car driven by her son Ting Hing Soon, was reported to have witnessed the vehicle carrying her two daughters and seven grandchildren crash into the water from the jetty. – Bernama
[ad_2]
