'Life without you will never be the same': Tay Ping Hui's mom, 84, dies of pancreatic cancer

Local actor Tay Ping Hui's mother died of pancreatic cancer on Aug. 4 at the age of 84, according to Lianhe Zaobao.

Challenging few months

Thanking the many people who noticed his absence online and showed him "much concern", Tay wrote a tribute to his mother in an Aug. 13 Instagram post.

He had been "unable to bring [himself] to post anything remotely happy" as it had been "challenging physically, mentally and emotionally over the past few months".

A year ago, Tay's mother had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Tumor grew, cancer spread

"We managed to reduce the tumor a little through radiation and chemo and she did get better for a while," the post read.

However, Tay said things got worse about two months ago with the tumor growing again and the cancer spreading to his mother's liver.

He said: "We took turns accompanying her in the hospital room to make sure that there was always someone familiar beside her because of her dementia."

"It was a very painful and heartbreaking journey," he added.

"Mom fought hard with everything she had, but left us slightly more than a week ago."

Love

Calling his mother a person who loved life, Tay said that if he could sum up her life, he would choose the word "love".

"Because mom loved to cook, she loved to eat, she loved to chat, she loved mahjong, she loved her grandchildren, she loved her children, she loved my father, but most of all, she loved life," Tay said.

"And I can say without any doubt, that we loved her as much."

He added that he misses her calling him "ah boy" and he will miss her until they finally meet again.

"Life without you will never be the same," he said.

"Mummy, wait for me," he wrote in Chinese.

"Farewell my dearest mummy. I love you."