KUALA LUMPUR: For Chong Mui Tiau, 70, last month's deadly landslide at the Father's Organic Farm in Gohtong Jaya, Batang Kali, will remain a dark and indelible episode in the evening of life. In the blink of an eye, she lost two daughters and a grandson.
She said ever since the incident, she could not sleep.
"I could not sleep knowing that they are gone. It is very painful for me, but I have no choice but to accept the fate and move forward,"
"It will take some time, but for now I'm still mourning their deaths," Chong said, as she blinked away tears, her voice faltering in utter grief.
"My youngest sister Lai Lee Yin went on a camping trip with our older sister (SJKC Mun Choon teacher) Lai Lee Koon and her son, Tong Kai En," said Chong's son, Lai Choon Seng, 46.
Lee Yin, 37, Lee Koon, 45, and her son Kai En, 9 all perished in the heartbreaking incident that took the lives of 28 others.
"We knew they went on this trip, but we didn't know about the landslide until Lee Koon's husband called us around 12noon on the day of the landslide, asking us to go to the campsite," Choon Seng said.
He said around the same time, the family received news that the bodies were sent to Sungai Buloh Hospital for post-mortem and that people related to the SJKC Mun Choong group were involved.
"The family was devastated. Lee Yin was the one who always accompanies my parents wherever they wanted to go,"
Today, Lee Yin's parents received her Social Security Organisation (Socso) benefit, handed over to the family at Tai Pieh Medicine Shop, Sentul.
Socso Federal Territory director Mohamad Asri Ngosman and Batu member of parliament P. Prabakaran were present at the ceremony. Lee Yin's contributions meant her parents will receive a lifetime monthly pension of RM1,004.25.
They are also eligible to receive a one-off funeral benefit of up to RM2,000.
Both benefits are under Socso's workers' Social Security Act (AKSP) 1969.
"The house is quiet now. Otherwise, everyday after school, my nephew will come over to his grandparents' house to have his meal and spend time with them," Choon Seng said.
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