| My Father, The HeroIn the late 1930s, life for the Lims took on a change as Lim became increasingly involved in anti-Japanese activities. The children saw less and less of their father and their weekend outings to High Street ceased altogether. 'We know he was doing some dangerous work without knowing the details, but we were too young to worry,' said Oon Geok. 'There were times when we hardly saw him at all. He used to come back late at night after we had all gone to bed'. On 15 February 1942, four days after Lim left the family, Singapore fell to the Japanese. Lim was a meticulous and successful businessman and also a devoted family man. So why didn't he arrange for his family to flee together with him? In an entry in his diary dated 11 February 1942, he said that though he wanted very much for his wife and children to be with him, as a leader in the resistance movement, he should not care only about his family. He wrote, 'A steamer was leaving for India in the afternoon, but only 50 persons could be accommodated. As this number was insufficient for all my co-helpers and our families, and not wanting to be accused of selfishness or partiality, we decided not to avail ourselves of this opportunity'. So, the family stuck out the war years in Singapore. After a neighbor's house was shelled, they moved from the Palm Grove Avenue house to the safety of the family's Telok Ayer factory. Oon Geok recalled, 'Later, we shifted into Tan Tock Seng Hospital staff quarters with my mother's cousin who was a doctor, but soon shifted again for our safety to St John's Island. We didn't last long over there either because there was no drinking water'. Oon Geok continued, 'The journey back was terrifying as we had to travel by a launch crawling with Japanese soldiers and they had been told to look out for a particular woman with her seven children. My mother kept praying so hard and tried to behave normal - it was a sheer miracle we didn't get caught'. Choo Neo kept the family together during the Occupation years. 'My mother was forced to sell her jewellery, yet she never told us what she was going through,' said Oon Geok. 'She tried to give us a very normal family life'. Occasionally, friends of her father would visit the family with a sack of rice, so there was enough to eat. Her mother staunchly believed that Lim would return alive. This could be partly attributed to an incident which took place just before the war. Lim was walking along a street when he was stopped by an Indian man who told him that the war would make him famous and he would live to enjoy his fame. Lim related the incident to his wife and this was something she remembered during those times when there had been no news from him. Just as the stranger predicted, Lim became a war hero. At the time of his death, he knew he would be revered as a staunch nationalist, but sadly, he never made it home. Oon Geok recalled that it was only after the war, some time in 1945, that the family learnt of his death. Initially, her mother was very excited when one of Lim's friends sent word that he had news about her husband. However, when a group of men, including the Anglican priest who was the principal of St Andrew's School where her sons studied, came to the house, the truth dawned on her. Only 36 then, the young widow travelled to Batu Gajah with her eldest son to bring back her husband's remains. Not long after that, the British returned Lim's wartime diary to his family. It contain detailed accounts of his training in India and his personal thoughts. Also included was a touching farewell letter he wrote his wife while in jail. In the letter, Lim related how he was inducted into the British Intelligence for the Malayan operation. When he found out that his background and experience would be useful, he volunteered for the mission against the enemy. He wrote, 'I fully realized the risks involved, but once the job was started, it must be pushed to a successful end. Lim was well aware what risking his life would mean for his family in Singapore. He told his wife, 'It is very painful for me to put the whole burden on your shoulders, but I'm confident you are capable of bearing it and bearing it well. If there is a god in heaven, there shold be a drop of dew for each blade of grass. Who am I to doubt his existence?' His parting words to here were, 'You must not grieve for me. On the other hand, you should take pride in my sacrifice and devote yourself to the upbringing of the children. Tell them what happened to me and direct them along my footsteps.' It was Lim's hope that his children would go to university and that 'it is most important that they should divide their time between English and Chinese'. In 1979, Mrs Lim died at the age of 70 after a long battle with liver cancer. She had borne the illness with the same stoicism that saw her through her years of single parenthood. 'She never once complained or railed against her fate,' said Oon Geok. 'It was only after I married and had my own children that I realized what a tremendous strain it must have been on her to bring up all seven of us alone, especially in those days'. So while Papa, Bo Seng, was the celebrated hero, Mama, Choo Neo, was in her own way, a heroine in the Lim family.
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