Born in 1920, married at 18 and living a medicine-free life at 105. Meet one of Singapore's oldest seniors

Some 30 minutes into our interview, Madam Lin Geok I got impatient.

The 105-year-old asked her 82-year-old daughter Cynthia Low why it was taking so long. The CNA TODAY crew was standing between her and her absolute favourite activity – playing mahjong. 

Mdm Lin had arrived bright and early at the THK (Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities) Active Ageing Centre@Fengshan 114 in Bedok to play with fellow seniors. This is something she does faithfully a few times a week.

However, right at that moment, she was fielding a barrage of questions about her long and storied life, and all this talk about her past was clearly boring her.

"You can play later, don't worry. Wait a while more,'' Madam Low shushed. She is the second of Mdm Lin's 11 children who are aged 60 to 84. The matriarch has 24 grandchildren and 21 great grandchildren. The total family count, including spouses, stands at 78.

Mdm Lin was dressed in a floral top with embellishments on her collar and black pants with pink slip-on shoes. 

She can hardly hear despite hearing aids and has to move around in a wheelchair, aided by her Indonesian domestic worker Herawati, 39, who goes by one name and who has been taking care of her for about a year.

Before Mdm Lin, I had never met anyone above 100, but whatever image I had had of someone more than a century old disappeared when we met.

Mdm Lin certainly didn't look her age, mostly because she had an impish grin and a twinkle in her eye. It amazed me that she didn't need glasses to see. 

But clearly, age has an impact. 

It was tough getting her to reply to questions. Whenever I asked a question, her daughter would repeat it loudly into her ear. She would then try to answer, but more often than not, she wasn't able to provide a coherent reply and her children would step in to speak on her behalf. 

And yet, her mind was clearly still sharp. When asked to recall when her husband died, she thought for a moment and gave the exact year: 1989. He died of liver cancer at the age of 74.

Her son, retiree Leo Low, 68 (and child No 7), told me that his mother is healthy, does not take medication and has no chronic illnesses. 

"She eats whatever she likes, even oily and fried food."

Mdm Low, a retired nurse, exclaimed: "She loves durian. I eat a few seeds and I don’t want to eat anymore, but she can eat much more!"

As the photographer set up, Mdm Lin fished out a ring from her little purse, telling her daughter she wanted to wear it.

Mdm Low shushed her again. "No need, lah, you already look very nice today," she said in the Chinese dialect of Hokkien.

A HUNDRED YEARS OF LIFE

In this year’s National Day Rally speech on Aug 17, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong talked about the implications of a rapidly ageing society. He said that 20 years ago, there were 400 people in Singapore aged 100 or older. Today, there are 1,500.

With 25,200 people over the age of 90 in Singapore today, their numbers are set to grow further.

Data from the Singapore Department of Statistics showed that the number of 95- to 99-year-olds stands at 5,400 today, significantly higher than the 2,900 in 2014. 

When asked for details on the oldest Singaporean, both the Department of Statistics and the Immigrations and Checkpoint Authority (ICA) said that they could not provide personal information.

This group of centenarians is what the government refers to as pioneers – those who have seen world wars, race riots and the massive transformation of a fishing village island into a glittering global city.

At 105, Mdm Lin has to be one of the oldest living Singaporeans. 

She was born here in 1920. Her pink identity card doesn't have a specific date or month on it, unlike most of ours. 

Mdm Low said the family celebrates her birthday in June.

"In those days, they didn't have such (specific) records. She told us what her own mother told her when she was born." 

Mdm Lin grew up in the Boat Quay area, where her father was in charge of a few cargo boats. Supplies such as rice were stored in the godowns while the family lived upstairs. She had three other siblings, all of whom have died.

Girls did not receive formal education in those days, but her children said that Mdm Lin learnt to read and write in Chinese from a tutor. 

And, as was common then, living in a multi-racial village in Pasir Panjang meant that she also learnt to speak Malay and the Teochew, Cantonese and Hokkien dialects. She converses in fluent Malay with Ms Herawati.

Throughout her life, she never worked but did take on babysitting jobs.

As with most women of her generation, she married young, at 18, to a Malaysian who was delivering goods to the godown at Boat Quay.

Mdm Low said her mother had told her in detail how she met their dad. 

"My father used to frequent a red bean soup stall at Boat Quay and the owner told him that if he was keen, there was a young girl who lived upstairs he could marry. And so, they did," she recounted.

I can almost picture this scene, straight out of a vintage movie where boy meets girl, set against a busy Boat Quay in late 1930s Singapore.

AN ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT

My own view of old age is not entirely positive. I am quite sure I do not want to live to be 100. Especially not if I have to be in diapers, with someone pushing me around in a wheelchair, spending each day whiling away the long hours staring at the TV – or in my case, probably an iPad – as I pray for a painless end. 

However, Mdm Lin forced me to re-examine this stereotypical view. 

Yes, her hearing is a source of irritation (I could sense how annoyed she was when she couldn't hear a question, which had to be repeated many times) and the wheelchair seemed like an imposition.

Her children told me that up until around two years ago, their mother was as sharp as she had always been and enjoyed talking, eating and travelling. The secret, they said, was her ability to embrace life fully, as if it were one big adventure.

"When my father died, she was very sad," Mdm Low recalled, but added that her mother did not simply sit around and mope.

"One of our sisters lives in the United States, so she flew there to stay with them for a few months. And she went on a roller-coaster ride. She was 67 years old! I stopped going on roller-coasters at 55."

On a family holiday to the Sunway Lagoon Resort in Malaysia, she was game to try the water slides at the age of 75. 

Her last holiday was in Taiwan when she was 95 years old. Despite being on a wheelchair, she enjoyed all the sights and the delicious food. 

If they could distil the secret to her longevity, both siblings said it would be that their mother was an adventurer who embraced whatever came at her with a fierce "just do it" spirit.

Mdm Low recalled a time when her father objected to her taking part in a camping activity in school, but her mother stepped in to say: "If you don't let her go now, when is she going to go?"

Mr Low said of his mother: "The thing about her is that she never stressed about what will happen tomorrow. Just do your best every day."

Himself a grandparent of two, he added: "Today’s parents, they start worrying from Nursery 1 and by Kindergarten 1, you go and queue up for good (primary) schools. In those days, children (decided) what they wanted to do. If you think you are capable, you go to polytechnic or junior college. If you can't qualify for further studies, you just go out and work. 

"Time passed and everyone turned out okay. It really was a different time."

As seniors themselves, do they think they would live as long as their mother?

Mdm Low said: “Genetically, it is possible. But I think 90 enough already, lah.

"I am not worried about being old. Just take life easy and age gracefully." 

For Mr Low, his biggest worry is being struck with a chronic illness, which would reduce the quality of life drastically. "That worries me more, because it is costly to be sick and you will become a burden to your family who have to take care of you."

After nearly two hours of talking, we wrapped up and Mdm Lin got to play a few rounds of mahjong, which visibly lifted her spirits.

Aside from Mdm Lin, the other three women at the table were between 70 and 93 years old. And it was the 93-year-old who took the lead, moving faster than I ever could playing a round of cards.

Once done, Mdm Lin signalled to her Indonesian helper, who then told Mdm Low that it was time to go, saying: "Ah Ma is hungry."

That little flash of impatience was back. She could not wait for the treat in store for her at lunch. Her children were taking her to one of her favourite Chinese eateries – Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup along Changi Road – so that she could have all the roasted meats she loved.

She waved a toothless goodbye to everyone, adjusted her purse and was out the door, wearing the weight of 105 years as lightly as her tiny frame, embracing – not raging against – the light.