If I can have it my way, I will want that driver HUNG!
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Double life of Outram accident victim
TEARS, THEN SILENCE
Nightclub patrons donate $38,000 to hostess' family, but mum's too stunned by daughter's secret life to react
By Joyce Lim
May 20, 2007
(From left) Miss Yuan's brother, mother and eldest sister arriving in Singapore.
IT was 2am yesterday morning when the call came from a cabaret mamasan.
She wanted to see Madam Lin Xiu Xia. It was the only time that the mamasan was free to see her.
Madam Lin's daughter, Yuan Fu Di, used to work for the mamasan at Lido Palace Nightclub before she was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Outram Road on 7 May.
Madam Lin, 54, went to the nightclub, accompanied by her son, son-in-law and this reporter.
Her journey to Singapore was exhausting.
She had to take an 11-hour train ride from Liaoning, where she lives a simple life with her husband, to Beijing and then a six-hour flight to Singapore.
They had borrowed 20,000 yuan from relatives and friends for the trip.
Madam Lin was quiet throughout the drive from the wake at Lavender Street to the nightclub on Outram Road.
She was still suffering from a pain in her stomach. She had been rushed to hospital twice since she arrived in Singapore last Saturday.
On both occasions, Madam Lin, who has diabetes and heart problems, cried so hard that she felt sharp pains in her stomach.
Her eldest daughter told this reporter that her mother was shattered when she found out what her sister did to earn money in Singapore.
'After my sister's death, my mother hasn't been talking much. She also can't sleep well and has no appetite for food. We never discuss my sister's job.
'But I can see that my mother is very distressed and is fighting to come to terms with it,' said Fu Di's eldest sister, who wanted to be known only as MsYuan.
Madam Lin and her family members met two mamasans and a manager at a waiting area outside the cabaret lift lobby.
The mamasans expressed their condolences before placing two white envelopes on the table.
One envelope contained donations which a mamasan had helped to collect for the family. Another envelope contained part of Fu Di's salary, which was less than $500.
'Here's $37,778 cash which we have collected in donations from our staff and customers. You can use the money in any way that you want,' the mamasan told Madam Lin in Mandarin.
It was the first time that the retired farmer had seen so much money in her life. It was the equivalent of 190,200 yuan.
But her eyes were not on the wad of cash before her. She was looking at the people coming out of the lift.
Most of the men appeared drunk. Hanging on their elbows were sweet young China girls. To Madam Lin, they must have seemed like her dead daughter.
Madam Lin shut her eyes tight for a few seconds.
They had thought the world of their daughter, Fu Di.
Although Fu Di was the youngest daughter in the family, she was their sole breadwinner.
Fu Di's two elder sisters are married. Her younger brother is planning to get married this year.
Fu Di had told her parents that she needed to travel to Singapore, Shenzhen and Hong Kong for work.
Said Fu Di's father, Mr Yuan Zheng Jun, 60: 'We tried to ask what she was working as, but she always found excuses and avoided the topic.
'Sometimes she would come home once a month. Sometimes once in three to four months. But each time she came home, she would buy for me anything that I wanted. She would also give me a few thousand renminbi to buy cigarettes. I'm a heavy smoker.'
Mr Yuan added that he and his wife have four children but they doted on Fu Di most.
When Fu Di's family recovered her belongings in Singapore, they found an electronic air ticket in her bag. She had already booked and paid for her flight home on 13 May, Mothers' Day.
'If only she had returned home earlier,' said a tearful Mr Yuan.
Fu Di was crossing Outram Road when she was hit by a car around 10pm on 7 May. She was believed to be heading for work at Lido Palace Nightclub.
She died on the spot.
The driver has been charged with causing death by a rash act, driving while under the influence of alcohol, failing to stop to render help after the accident and removing the vehicle (from the accident scene) without police authorisation.
Madam Lin arrived in Singapore to identify her daughter's body on Mothers' Day.
Said undertaker Roland Tay, who is handing Fu Ji's funeral arrangements: 'After I sent them to the hotel last Saturday, the elderly woman was very sick. So I sent her to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
'She identified her daughter's body on Sunday. And on Monday, when we collected the body, she cried so much that she fainted. We had to call for an ambulance to rush her to hospital.'
Fu Di's brother told The New Paper that his parents learned of his sister's job only just before they arrived in Singapore.
'My sisters and I felt that we had to tell them, instead of them reading from newspaper reports,' said Fu Di's younger brother.
'My parents have heart problems. My mother has become especially weak after she learned of my sister's death. We didn't want to let the old folks come, but they insisted on coming to see my sister for the last time.'
It was the first time that the family was flying overseas.
Said the older Mr Yuan: 'She was very filial and called home often so as not to let me and my wife worry about her.'
The last time Mr Yuan saw his daughter was last November when she returned home to celebrate his birthday.
Her sister, Ms Yuan Fu Ping, told The New Paper that Fu Di doted on her younger brother and was hoping to save money for his wedding at the end of the year.
Fu Di's wake, which started on Monday, has been quiet. Some members of the public have turned up, along with fewer than five of her colleagues in the cabaret industry.
They wanted to avoid the media, a mamasan told this reporter.
Instead they started a donation drive at the nightclub.
Mr Tay, from Direct Funeral Services, had initially planned for the cremation to be held last Wednesday evening.
But because the family wanted a seven-day wake for Fu Di, her cremation has been postponed to Sunday morning.
About $10,000 in donations has been collected at the wake.
DRESSED IN RED
The family has dressed her in a an all-red outfit with matching red shoes.
'Red symbolises happiness,' explained Fu Di's sister.
'We hope that Fu Di can have a better next life.'
Although few people has turned up at the wake, there is one person the family is waiting to see most - the driver involved in the accident that killed Fu Di.
Said Fu Di's brother-in-law: 'We understand how he must be very scared to come to the wake. But we have lost a family member and we can come to terms with it, why can't he?'
