A Touching Love Story

This news was featured in Straits Times today. Was very moved by the obviously deep-rooted love the husband has for his wife, even after death separates them. Have a read....

Tragic accident that broke husband's heart

DR TENG Ping Ming, 90, used to take the bus to his clinic - but he has never boarded one since his wife died, about a month after her foot was run over by a bus.

Mrs Shu-hsien Kuo Teng, 82, fell off a Tibs Bendy Bus as she was trying to alight at a New Bridge Road bus stop, near her Upper Circular Road home.

The retired doctor - on her way home from shopping - was warded after the May 18, 2001 incident, then suffered a stroke died on July 7 that year.

Her husband, an England-trained doctor, now takes a taxi to his clinic opposite Raffles Hotel.
Yesterday, 3 1/2 years after the incident, the driver of the bus was fined $500 and banned from driving for three months. Rajan Subramoniam, 48, admitted causing hurt through negligence while driving the service 190 bus, at about 2.30pm.

That day, the day 'she went to buy shirts for me', remains seared in Dr Teng's memory.
He has never returned to Centrepoint either, which was where his wife - who also habitually took the bus to do her marketing in Tiong Bahru - had purchased orange and crimson red shirts for him, and a non-stick frying pan for the house.

She then boarded the bus driven by Rajan, who eventually pulled up at the fateful New Bridge Road bus stop.

In court yesterday, Assistant Public Prosecutor Robert Tan said Rajan then drove off without checking that Mrs Teng was not too near his bus.

The rear wheel ran over her right foot and the active church-goer ended up at Singapore General Hospital. Sepsis due to gangrene and bronchopneumonia, following the crushing of her right foot, contributed to the stroke she suffered.

During the 49 days she survived, Dr Teng's health also deteriorated. He too ended up at SGH, for a heart condition, about a week after his wife - so relatives wheeled him to see her.

His daughter, Ms Josephine Teng, 55, returned from New York to take care of him. 'I would go from one ward to the other,' recalled Ms Teng, a massage therapist.

Then, the day before his wife had a stroke, Dr Teng remembers dreaming that she was leaving him.

He cried the whole night.

The couple had attended the same church in Fujian, China and married in 1946. They arrived here in 1953, after his stint in England.

'She was the school belle. A lot of men went after her,' Dr Teng told The Straits Times with a smile.

He had first met her, and thought her 'not bad', when his cousin took him to a play she acted in.
She had a medical degree from China but was mainly a housewife, helping him at his clinic occasionally. She also busied herself with church activities and was the local president of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women.

The couple had been preparing to celebrate both their birthdays and bought birthday cards in advance. When the end finally came, however, it came without warning.

'There had been many false alarms. But each time we think she is going to go, she comes back again,' said Ms Teng.

When the call came to say Mrs Teng had died at around 9am, Dr Teng recalled, 'My face changed colour and I threw up'.

Since then, asked how he has coped, he replied after a pause: 'I have left her things untouched. Her bed, make-up table have not been moved.'

Still, a closure of sorts was reached - not least for the driver who, his lawyer said, had continued driving for more than three years with an unblemished record.

Mr Edwin Tay said Rajan had been given various awards for honesty and safe driving habits, and had been driving for more than 14 years.

The driver, a widower with two young daughters, said he was sorry and remorseful, and apologised to the court and the victim's family.