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SINGAPORE: When she met friends at a wedding two weeks ago, Ms Lo Hwei Yen told them that she was headed to India for work. She seemed excited about the trip, said the friends who met her.
On Friday, Ms Lo, 28, was identified as the Singaporean hostage held in the Mumbai terror attacks. Her body was found on the 19th floor of the Oberoi Hotel.
Friends whom TODAY spoke to expressed shock and sadness at the sudden loss.
“She was so young,” said a former Victoria Junior College classmate, who declined to be named. Another who saw her at the wedding said: “She seemed very radiant the last two times I saw her. I was very happy for her.”
Ms Lo, the eldest of three sisters, was engaged to Mr Michael Puhaindran in 2006 and they got married in Bali last year.
Friends described Ms Lo — who also attended Methodist Girls’ School — as “bubbly”, “bright”, “confident” and “outgoing”. At National University of Singapore, she was an active student who took part in many activities. Friends from law school said she was popular and known by many, including her juniors.
A former colleague who had known her since 2005 said: “She was bright and outgoing like any young lawyer entering the profession. It seemed the world was her oyster.”
Ms Lo was at law firm Drew and Napier between 2004 to 2006. She left it for a brief stint at another law firm Rajah and Tann, before she joined international law firm Stephenson Harwood where she had worked since last year.
Rumours of Ms Lo’s fate had been circulating since Friday afternoon. On Friday evening, as word about a media briefing was to be held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spread, one friend, who knew her, spoke for many when he said: “Many of her friends are still hoping there is some good news.”
As friends turned to news websites about the Mumbai attacks, Ms Lo’s name stood out for some.
Said a former junior college schoolmate: “Her name was quite unique among all those I knew. Most are Hui Yan or Hwee Yen. She’s Hwei Yen with an ‘I’, with a nice radiant smile. She will always stand unique in her friends’ hearts.”
- TODAY/yb
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