Life goes on: Ong, who started an online business after her husband’s death, packing orders at her father’s home in Johor Baru.
JOHOR BARU: After recently losing her husband to a traffic accident, a single mother who is pregnant with their third child has started an online business to earn a living.
Michelle Ong, 33, said her world came crashing down on Jan 28 when she received a call from a friend informing her that her husband had got into an accident.
“It was Chinese New Year and my husband had gone out to meet his friends that night.
“I was fast asleep when I got the call at around 2am. I even told the friend not to joke about such a thing. I lost it after realising that he was serious.
“My life changed in the blink of an eye,” she said in an interview.Ong, who has two sons aged six and three, said she is due to give birth to her third child in June.
At first, Ong said she felt lost after her husband’s sudden death.
The housewife said losing the breadwinner in her family meant that she had to look for her own source of income to care for herself and her children.
“With my kids still young and another baby on the way, I told myself that I must be strong as I have to now play the role of both mother and father,” she said.
Ong started selling baby and children’s products through Facebook Live by dipping into her savings to purchase stocks.
“Since it was my first try, I did not stock up too many products but thankfully, the response was good and my items like books, educational toys and apparel were almost all snapped up,” she said, adding that her customers were from Johor and the Klang Valley.
Ong said she is thankful that she could move back to her father’s house in Taman Johor Jaya here as she could no longer afford the rent at her own place.
“I hope to make as much sales as I can to save up before I give birth to cover our expenses, including my elder son’s kindergarten fees.”
She also plans to explore other social media platforms to reach a wider audience, she added.
“For now, I am running a one-woman show where I conduct live sessions, take orders, pack them and send the parcels to the courier all on my own – sometimes it takes me from day to night to tend to the orders.
“It is tiring to juggle the online business and care for my kids but at least I am making an honest living without having to depend on others,” she said.
