If you've watched the National Day Parade 2018, you will remember this elderly lady whose real life story was featured in the show film.

That's Woo Yun Sum. She used to be a Samsui woman.

Woo's life story was one of the five that were reenacted in 10-minute segment, alongside stories of sprint queen Mary Klass, social entrepreneur Cai Yinzhou, botanist Veera Sekaran and Mashruddin, the visually-impared busker.

Dubbed entire segment

Woo's segment was presented in Mandarin, but she does not speak a word of it.

Knowing that Woo may not entirely understand the film, the NDP team gathered people who can speak Cantonese to dub the film just for Woo, so as to share the fruit of labour with her.

This anecdote was shared by Singaporean filmmaker Boo Junfeng, who was also the creative director of NDP 2018.

Woo's story depicts the resilience of the pioneer generation

The film was inspired by five stories across different generations and backgrounds.

Woo's segment tells a story of her personal experience as a Samsui woman.

The Samsui women were a group of who wore distinct large red head gear and worked on construction sites, tin mines and rubber estates in the past.

They played a significant role in nation-building and many of them worked well into their 70s.

Woo became a Samsui woman when she was 15.

Despite the hardship and struggle, Woo was grateful towards the older Samsui women who took care of her.

At the end of the film, Woo also reflected a sense of contentment as she is seeing how Singapore has progressed to become "a good place to stay, plenty of food to eat and kids are able to go to school".

Themes of empathy and resilience were common throughout the entire film, showing that Singaporeans can achieve extraordinary feats given the right attitude and most importantly, support from one another.

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Watch the short interview with Woo at 2:17:00:

Top photo collage from screengrab of Toggle.sg and Boo Junfeng Facebook post