Final Farewell to An Angel . . . Hwei Yen

A TORRENTIAL tropical rainstorm beat down from darkened skies on Thursday as mourners began a funeral mass for Singapore’s ‘angel’ killed by armed militants in Mumbai over a week ago.

The downpour continued even as Ms Lo Hwei Yen’s white coffin left the St Teresa’s Church near Bukit Purmei for Mandai Crematorium.

Ms Lo, 28, a lawyer, was one of at least 188 people, including 22 foreigners, killed in a shooting and grenade rampage by 10 militants who terrorised Mumbai for 60 hours last week.

The church was packed for the private funeral service, attended by over 200 people, who had earlier attended a prayer session at her family home in Lower Delta Road.

Ms Lo’s death has jolted the nation, and sparked off an outpouring of grief and support for her family. Hundreds of Singaporeans, including cabinet ministers and the President, have turned out during the week for her wake.

The Sunday before Ms Lo flew to Mumbai, she and her husband were in Melbourne, and they attended mass in church together.

They were in church again on Thursday afternoon. This time, Mr Michael Puhaindran, 37, also a lawyer, was at St Teresa’s Church here to see her off.

Mr Puhaindran delivered a glowing eulogy of his wife, who he said was the love of his life.

He said: ‘I am both happy and sad to tell you that Yen wasn’t just the one I wanted. She was the one who I needed.’

Some 600 people later went to the Mandai Crematorium to bid a final farewell to Ms Lo.

In a short service lasting about 20 minutes at Hall 4, Mr Puhaindran said a short prayer and asked God to take a ‘new angel’.

Family members and close friends then gathered for a private service before the cremation.

‘She was there at the wrong time,’ Mr Devendran Puhaindran, the uncle of Ms Lo’s husband said before the funeral.

‘I remember her as a very bubbly girl, always with a smile.’

Funeral mourners were asked to wear ‘fabulous black’, a reflection of Ms Lo’s stylishness, friends said.

Ms Lo’s smiling face has been peering from the newspapers daily since the foreign ministry announced her death last Friday.

‘You look at her smile, you can see that radiance of her soul,’ her husband said in a 15-minute eulogy in church.

The couple were married only last year in Bali.

Ms Lo had gone to Mumbai for only one night to deliver a talk about the global credit crunch.

She was taken hostage on Wednesday night, along with others, by the militants who stormed the Oberoi/Trident hotel where she was staying.

Singapore’s foreign ministry said before she died, Ms Lo had conveyed a message from the attackers. The terrorists demanded that the Indian authorities refrain from storming the Oberoi hotel or else they would harm her.

Her body was found on the 19th floor of the hotel, he said.

‘Yen, my angel, my princess, words cannot express how much I miss you,’ her husband said, choking on his words during the eulogy.

‘I love you my baby.’