S’pore woman dies at 109, went from hiding in coffin during WW2 to successful farm owner

In 1917, Lim Ah Choo was born in Hainan, China. Right at the tail end of the first World War.

While World War I mostly passed the island by, that would not be the case for the second one.

Japan invaded Hainan in February 1939.

One night, Lim would find herself trying to avoid Japanese soldiers.

Faced with no other option, she prayed to the departed, pushed aside the heavy lid and hid inside a coffin, making no sound in fear of being found out.

She left a small crack in the lid for her to breathe through till the next morning.

That was life for Lim, who helped with the resistance movement during the war, and was often fleeing from the Japanese.

Those years were unimaginably tough, and Lim understandably did not have too much interest in reliving those memories.

But her defences, which stood strong against years of hardship and war, were no match for the persistence of some very curious grandchildren.

One of her grandchildren, Beverley, shared with Mothership how she and her two siblings used to pester Lim till she dropped them a few crumbs of a story, before putting her foot down and dragging them back to the present.

A disciplined woman

Lim’s post-war years would be eventful.

She would marry, start a family, move to Singapore, and then start a pig farm in the Serangoon area. Lim also raised ducks and chickens to make a living.

Underpinning these significant milestones was a staunch commitment to discipline.

While she loved to eat, she would only eat healthy food (her favourite durians being one of the few indulgences she partook in) and exercised consistently.

Often, she would cycle long distances — to get some water for the farm, and to collect leftovers from around nearby eateries to feed the pigs.

This would continue till the farmland was eventually reclaimed for HDB flats.

Her cycling routine, though, was only beginning.

Lim would cycle consistently from Sembawang to Ang Mo Kio, where she would practise taichi and wushu.

The free time she had from not running a pig farm was spent, among other things, picking up a new sport, badminton.

Starting at the age of 77, the spry newcomer took to the sport like a fish to water, quickly building up over a decade of playing time.

Tests in life

Her efforts helped her kept a lucid mind well into her 100s.

But Father Time is undefeated. Lim's cycling trips were eventually cut down as her family was scared that Lim, who was in her 90s at this point, would get into an accident.

Undaunted, Lim got straight to work on an indoor stationary bike, clocking in the miles while staying at home.

Even as her memory started slipping after she became a centurion, she still remembered her children's names.

Perhaps the greatest test of time through the years, though, came in 1989, when her husband of over 40 years passed away.

The two were very loving and would often go to the cinema together or to the community centre to practice tai chi.

Beverley recalled how, years after his death, Lim would say she could hear her husband "calling" her in the evening.

But she would reply that she couldn't go yet, as she was worried about her children.

The strongest woman

Lim had met her husband before the war started, and had married him after it had ended.

That's over 50 years of knowing and loving a person, which perhaps helped cushion the next 37 years she had to live without him.

It was near the end of all these lives lived that Beverley met her grandmother.

Lim was already over 80 when Beverley was born (Lim had Beverley's mum when she was 45), so she was far mellower than perhaps at any point in her life.

She recalled her grandmother cheerfully yelling "huat ah" when she would wish her happy new year.

But mellowing is a relative term, especially to someone like Lim, who Beverley calls the strongest woman she knew.

Beverley remembered how Lim would scold her and her siblings for eating too much candy, and insist they eat more vegetables instead.

It was a curious refrain considering they didn't have much of a sweet tooth. But year's later, Beverley's mum would finally confess that she had told Lim that the sweets in the house were for the children.

The candy was actually for herself, but better her kids get the lecture than her.

Final days

Her health took a drastic turn for the worse this year.

She fell into a deep sleep in the middle of February, around Feb. 14, not waking up even as the Chinese New Year celebrations were in full swing.

Doctors were pessimistic about her chances on making it through the next few days.

Two days later, she woke up to eat some of her favourite durians.

She would hang on till Feb. 23, where she would pass away at 4:50pm.

By then, she was 109. Her farm's success, her youthful defiance, even her hard-earned health were a distant memory.

But she went surrounded by loved ones. Responding, finally, to her husband's call to come home.