Mrs Lee Kuan Yew dies aged 89 By yahoosingapore – October 2nd, 2010

Mrs Lee Kuan Yew dies aged 89
By yahoosingapore – October 2nd, 2010

Madam Kwa Geok Choo – wife of Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew and mother of PM Lee Hsien Loong – has died on Saturday at the age of 89.

Kwa “passed away peacefully at home,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. It did not specify the cause of death.

The Straits Times reports that she died with daughter, Lee Wei Ling, by her side at her Oxley Road home.

Earlier in the day, her younger son, Lee Hsien Yang had come to visit. Her husband, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, was hospitalised earlier this week for a chest infection.

PM Lee, who was on an official four-day visit to Belgium, immediately cut short his trip and flew back home with his wife, Ho Ching.

Last month, MM Lee revealed that his companion of 63 years — they have been together since they were law students in London – had been bedridden for the last two years since she suffered a major brain haemorrhage in June 2008.

He had shared that his most difficult moment is at the end of each day as he sits by the bedside of his wife, who had been unable to speak or move.

“She understands when I talk to her, which I do every night,” he said. “She keeps awake for me; I tell her about my day’s work, read her favourite poems.”

“I told her, ‘I would try and keep you company for as long as I can,” before adding, “I’m not sure who’s going first, whether she or me.”