Grandma still in shock after losing granddaughters

Distraught: Ah Ling (in purple) speaking to family members at the Sungai Buloh Hospital Forensics Department.

SUNGAI BULOH: It was lunch time at the Sungai Buloh Hospital but Wong Ah Yin, 81, was too distraught to touch her food.

Instead of having a bite of the chicken, bean sprout and rice in front of her, Wong tore out bits of a sardine bun brought by her family and friends. Occasionally, she would wipe her eyes.

But she kept silent when reporters asked her about the fire that robbed her of her 10-year-old great-granddaughter, Ng Sze Xuan.

According to one of Wong’s grandsons, she was still in a state of shock.

“She inhaled some smoke and will be under observation,” he said.

Attempts to get more details about Wong’s daughter-in-law Lam Chooi Lai, 37, who is warded at the intensive care unit, was thwarted by security guards at the hospital.

The fire also took the life of Wong’s granddaughter seven-year-old Lam Yan Yi.

When met at the Sungai Buloh Hospital Forensics Department, Sze Xuan’s mother, who only wanted to be known as Ah Ling, was stunned by the tragedy.

“I rushed from Ipoh when I heard the news at 2am,” she said.

“I had not seen my daughter in a year as I am working in Ipoh and she was staying with her father.

“I was only told that there was a fire and to come to the hospital, so I rushed here on the earliest train only to find that she’s gone,” the 31-year-old woman told reporters yesterday.

She said she had divorced Sze Xuan’s father about six years ago.

“We have two children, a seven-year-old boy and Sze Xuan who were living with my ex-husband here. He was not at the house during the fire,” she said.

Ah Ling, who initially appeared calm, was later too overwhelmed to speak further after claiming her daughter’s remains.