This is the story of my wife Geok Lee and this blog, the story of my spiritual life written while I am living. I love writing in real-time, my true experiences, my feelings, and my thoughts of the moment so that I chart my life as I continue to stay true to my beliefs in life which includes facing reality and living with spiritual intuition. It is about learning from real-life experiences to improve myself and sharing it with others so they too can help themselves. I rather do this when I am alive and active rather than when I'm old and dying to only have a few months to live to pen a few words. I want the world to know why I think of what I think about now, in a real-time environment and share my deepest feelings and thoughts that are from my soul in a way likened to the words of Wordsworth in his writings :
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
(Ode: Intimations of Immortality)
My wife, in her moments of pain in one of her bouts with cancer, would sometimes cry out for reasons to live on. In our time of pain and anguish, in an hour of darkness and doom, any one of us would cry out for relief and even doubt the purpose to live and carry on.
When put with a question of this sort, somehow the answer that came quickly in my mind was firm, 'So that you may touch the life of someone else whose life is precious in the eyes of God!' For I recall in our scriptures, D&C 18:10 'Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God'.
For her, she has indeed already touched many lives in the past :
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.
(Ode: Intimations of Immortality)
My wife, in her moments of pain in one of her bouts with cancer, would sometimes cry out for reasons to live on. In our time of pain and anguish, in an hour of darkness and doom, any one of us would cry out for relief and even doubt the purpose to live and carry on.
When put with a question of this sort, somehow the answer that came quickly in my mind was firm, 'So that you may touch the life of someone else whose life is precious in the eyes of God!' For I recall in our scriptures, D&C 18:10 'Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God'.
For her, she has indeed already touched many lives in the past :
She has touched lives to make them laugh.
..
..
(Links to the interview and edited video version by The Straits Times Razor TV are found here. Note that links to news-press/media sites may not work anymore due to rapid changes in their websites where they may discard old files due to storage limitations.)
.... and also to make them cry!
She can sing with our family in our Church hall...
.... or touch many lives in a public hall
By her bedside at the hospital, I played this video to her knowing it's her favorite song and lyrics. Listen to it.
Post-dated event: 30 Mar 2023 (Malaysia time zone), Jonathan How, a KL branch member is in Salt Lake City preparing to sing for the General Conference in a couple of days' time!
LDS Living coverage of Jonathan in SLC here.
Here she sings with the Singapore Symphony Chorus, the official choir of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in a joint performance in the 'Berlioz's La damnation de Faust' concert on 2 May 2009.
I'm so grateful to have had this woman in my life and cannot wait to see her again. I know exactly where I will find her, singing her heart out with the heavenly choirs--her voice blending beautifully with those around her but her face standing out as her eyes glow with mountains of love and a smile of true joy spreads across her face."
This was the last spectacular performance in the Church choir she was practicing for but didn't live to join in, Handel's Messiah, for the Christmas of 2012.
This is the reason to live, to touch the life of someone else!
By her bedside at the hospital, I played this video to her knowing it's her favorite song and lyrics. Listen to it.
She inspired a Dream family that led us to create paths in different directions and parts of the world :
It all began from little things that she taught us in dance, music, and acting in our Malaysia days in the 90s...
... which carried on till Dec 2006 in our last performance as a family in the PJ Church building before moving to Singapore.
As the children grew up and found themselves in different parts of the world, what their mother touched them within their lifetime is evident in their own lives. We have Fei the oldest child finding herself in Beijing and even Sweden after her BYU Hawaii college experience. Su the next oldest moved to the mainland USA from college in Hawaii to graduate in the field of performing arts from BYU Provo. Both Fei and Su were wise to find their own soul mates to be married in Church temple ceremonies in Logan and Salt Lake City in Utah.
As for the boys, Han the oldest, and his next younger brother Shuan have both set a high standard of academic performance for the younger two brothers to follow. Ern and Ray, are the youngest two of the NEXT GENERATION that I will have to continue to raise alone without their mother's continuing care. I'm glad that on Mom's 50th birthday, the children got to express their appreciation to their mother for special memories with her during their lifetime as per the video below :
When she turned 50 in April 2012, the children shared 50 memories of how they were touched in their lives by their Mom. Click here for the full version of the video of over an hour plus by Su Min! The children did the same thing for me for my 60th birthday when they all came to Kuala Lumpur but after cutting the cake, for Su Min also as her birthday was always a day before mine, I was given a box of cards to read memories from each of the children. The video was running but I could not control my emotions reading just a few cards and had to stop reading as well as the camera to get this only!
In one of the family council meetings held with the family members of Geok Lee in Singapore, someone suggested to me that I should write or even publish a book on the Story about My Wife.With so many unpublished books I wish to accomplish in my mind, I can only resort to the live postings I have done on the internet for now. Here goes.....
Here will be how the chapters will go, done very quickly with the technology in my hands today and my elaborate mind :
The Story about My Wife (a.k.a. The Unstoppable Mom)
Chapter 1 A True Story
Chapter 2 A Picture Perfect View of our life of imperfections
Chapter 3 Continuing life through to the New Millennium
Chapter 4 Another trip to the USA
Chapter 5 Starting the Journey of Challenges
Chapter 6 How she got to be called The Unstoppable Mom
Chapter 7 Facing the toughest challenge but not without miracles
Chapter 8 Continuing to Celebrate Life
Chapter 9 Enjoying loved ones who come home
Chapter 10 A planned trip that wasn't to be
Chapter 11 A funeral the way she wanted
Chapter 12 Touching Lives, in a Journey of Journeys
The theme of the last chapter above comes from a 'Journey of Journeys' we made in the summer of 2004 to the United States. It was called as such as though we had traveled together through many lands around the great dividing Pacific ocean such as the US many times previously on the north east side, in Asia more frequently to many countries in the west, Australia in the south and even as far south east of the ocean to French Polynesia, no other previous journeys could come close in comparison. Socially, in terms of people we came to meet again on this journey, it spanned over people we had first met at least through two decades of our lifetime together ie since 1982. As for Sights and Scenery, besides jetting about from city to city as done in previous trips, we covered thousands of miles on land in our jeep in the spirit of adventure, crossing terrain of rivers and lakes. Spiritually, it was definitely a breakthrough experience particularly for Geok Lee as we journeyed together, anxiously engaged in family history and temple work.
Do read the last chapter carefully to verify what I've said. In her own personal words, she ended her page saying, "The work still continues, much, much more is needed to be done. This experience had helped me gain a new perspective of the gospel. The work for our forebears is real and their influence can truly be felt even beyond the veil."
During her life time, my wife had done so much for our Family, for the Church and touched many other lives in the community or communities she had lived. The only reason she had to leave us so soon must be that she is needed more beyond the veil than continuing her responsibilities here on earth. There are also many other loved ones who had gone ahead earlier waiting to receive her. This is our belief and the blessings of the restored gospel with its covenants will keep us together till we meet again for the eternities. She can truly say, as Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
We have indeed mourned her passing but more important is that we have celebrated her life of joy and many accomplishments during her lifetime with us. We were blessed in having her in our midst in this, our journey of life, and perhaps the journey that she is on now should surpass what we thought was a 'Journey of Journeys'!
Photos from our earthly Journey of Journeys :
Together at the Church Conference Center in Salt Lake city, the city that became the center of our overland adventure that became a tapestry of Social, Scenic and Spiritual experiences.
Love Is from Dad the KL City Kid on Vimeo.
In a post funeral event, fellow Storytellers of Geok Lee from StoryLab had decided to dedicate the evening's Storytelling event to her. I was invited for the event held at The Substation of 45 Armenian Street on the night of 24th November 2012. The above video is a short clip at the end where each one got to share their recollection stories of her.
She performs on stage or even in an MRT train to entertain children!
Here is a storytelling event from Christmas of 2010 where Geok Lee is seen with more photos in the album here.
She stars in this humorous family video Story in the Christmas of Dec 2010. In the last part of the video shows her storytelling experience to old folks in the Henderson Community Centre, an event where the MP Indranee Thurai Rajah was present.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In one of the family council meetings held with the family members of Geok Lee in Singapore, someone suggested to me that I should write or even publish a book on the Story about My Wife.With so many unpublished books I wish to accomplish in my mind, I can only resort to the live postings I have done on the internet for now. Here goes.....
Here will be how the chapters will go, done very quickly with the technology in my hands today and my elaborate mind :
The Story about My Wife (a.k.a. The Unstoppable Mom)
Chapter 1 A True Story
Chapter 2 A Picture Perfect View of our life of imperfections
Chapter 3 Continuing life through to the New Millennium
Chapter 4 Another trip to the USA
Chapter 5 Starting the Journey of Challenges
Chapter 6 How she got to be called The Unstoppable Mom
Chapter 7 Facing the toughest challenge but not without miracles
Chapter 8 Continuing to Celebrate Life
Chapter 9 Enjoying loved ones who come home
Chapter 10 A planned trip that wasn't to be
Chapter 11 A funeral the way she wanted
Chapter 12 Touching Lives, in a Journey of Journeys
The theme of the last chapter above comes from a 'Journey of Journeys' we made in the summer of 2004 to the United States. It was called as such as though we had traveled together through many lands around the great dividing Pacific ocean such as the US many times previously on the north east side, in Asia more frequently to many countries in the west, Australia in the south and even as far south east of the ocean to French Polynesia, no other previous journeys could come close in comparison. Socially, in terms of people we came to meet again on this journey, it spanned over people we had first met at least through two decades of our lifetime together ie since 1982. As for Sights and Scenery, besides jetting about from city to city as done in previous trips, we covered thousands of miles on land in our jeep in the spirit of adventure, crossing terrain of rivers and lakes. Spiritually, it was definitely a breakthrough experience particularly for Geok Lee as we journeyed together, anxiously engaged in family history and temple work.
Do read the last chapter carefully to verify what I've said. In her own personal words, she ended her page saying, "The work still continues, much, much more is needed to be done. This experience had helped me gain a new perspective of the gospel. The work for our forebears is real and their influence can truly be felt even beyond the veil."
During her life time, my wife had done so much for our Family, for the Church and touched many other lives in the community or communities she had lived. The only reason she had to leave us so soon must be that she is needed more beyond the veil than continuing her responsibilities here on earth. There are also many other loved ones who had gone ahead earlier waiting to receive her. This is our belief and the blessings of the restored gospel with its covenants will keep us together till we meet again for the eternities. She can truly say, as Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."
We have indeed mourned her passing but more important is that we have celebrated her life of joy and many accomplishments during her lifetime with us. We were blessed in having her in our midst in this, our journey of life, and perhaps the journey that she is on now should surpass what we thought was a 'Journey of Journeys'!
Photos from our earthly Journey of Journeys :
Being close to nature and the elements.
Crossing cool mountain streams
Being by the Great Pacific Ocean
Close to our daughters in Hawaii at that time
.... and we loved being close to our friends in America too :
Bon Voyage My Love on this, the final Journey of Journeys that brings you home to many loved ones who have waited for you, as we will now have to wait until we meet you again!
Love Is...
Love Is from Dad the KL City Kid on Vimeo.
5th Anniversary
Nov 6, 2017
Nov 6, 2017
Pre-dated post
Celebrating the 7th Anniversary with a pre-book launch
Celebrating the 7th Anniversary with a pre-book launch
Nov 7, 2019
Writing a book about my wife was mentioned when this post was written earlier found above.
Writing a book about my wife was mentioned when this post was written earlier found above.
In a much later date, my personal goof-up in remembering the exact day of Geok Lee's passing on Nov 6, 2012, influences me to feel that it is as if the voice of my wife to pre-launch my first book to the world should be on Nov 7, 2019 which would be 7 years after her passing on Nov 6, 2012 and also 7 X 2 years after she was first diagnosed with cancer in Kuala Lumpur in the yearend of 2005 to cause her to have her first operation in Singapore in 2006 and the family to move to Singapore in 2007. Before that, we made a trip to the USA to visit our dear family and friends living there.
In the second 7 years after her passing, I was concerned at first that the Singapore government, even with a Minister offering help at her wake to assist me in getting long term stay to help with the two boys who were only 15 and 17 teenagers without a mother and soon without a father too in our Singapore home as my long term stay visa application was not granted! 7 years later, I am happy to record that the youngest two boys like my human birdlings had turned out well just like all my bird stories of the past shared in a poem too.
I was filled with intensive Body Mind Spirit experiences when I was consistently focused to grasp what is the state of human consciousness in our world today of the 21st century as I restlessly engaged myself in the communities of family/relationship life, business/research life and of course in spiritual/purposeful life to be a life long learner with experiences shared at www.AbacusToCloud.com It feels great to qualify to be a well experienced and accomplished researcher to have something to contribute to the world with my website or my online book of my life's journals that is timely to be shared in our tumultuous world.
It feels like I'm reborn again to understand the importance of quantum physics, the role of social and clinical psychologists and to learn of the latest technologies of social media to know how it will impact society and human consciousness. I easily now reach out today to help people with questions on spirituality if they have any, during a time when life's challenges are sweeping nations on many fronts!
I am grateful to be alive today to still be able to be a helpful or useful person to others and Geok Lee knows the intentions of my heart and mind to continue to be an inspiration to me spiritually. Body EQ Mind IQ Spirit SQ makes Man complete indeed! Even without my extensive research, I already learned it thanks to the SQ factor that I acquired 40 years ago in the story that starts here. I had to have my own research to validate what I write in my book as part of my habit of being a pure science student in middle or secondary school in Kuala Lumpur! Besides having the habit of a science student, my wired and connected brain causes me to provide links everywhere above to connect to other writings I've made for more detailed information! Yeah, we are all creatures of habits as I've shared on this website www.habitlane.com, here I go again haha!
17 Dec 2019
Procrastination obviously is one of my habits too. It's December 2019 now and I'm kicking off a pre-launch of my book that will be released on a latter date. The pre-launch is on event on 21st and 22nd of December this month! Wish me luck to share how it goes from this post onwards. I am the online writer of journals for sure and my first book will be available online!
..to be continued on the date of 22nd Dec 2019 by clicking here.
In the second 7 years after her passing, I was concerned at first that the Singapore government, even with a Minister offering help at her wake to assist me in getting long term stay to help with the two boys who were only 15 and 17 teenagers without a mother and soon without a father too in our Singapore home as my long term stay visa application was not granted! 7 years later, I am happy to record that the youngest two boys like my human birdlings had turned out well just like all my bird stories of the past shared in a poem too.
I was filled with intensive Body Mind Spirit experiences when I was consistently focused to grasp what is the state of human consciousness in our world today of the 21st century as I restlessly engaged myself in the communities of family/relationship life, business/research life and of course in spiritual/purposeful life to be a life long learner with experiences shared at www.AbacusToCloud.com It feels great to qualify to be a well experienced and accomplished researcher to have something to contribute to the world with my website or my online book of my life's journals that is timely to be shared in our tumultuous world.
It feels like I'm reborn again to understand the importance of quantum physics, the role of social and clinical psychologists and to learn of the latest technologies of social media to know how it will impact society and human consciousness. I easily now reach out today to help people with questions on spirituality if they have any, during a time when life's challenges are sweeping nations on many fronts!
I am grateful to be alive today to still be able to be a helpful or useful person to others and Geok Lee knows the intentions of my heart and mind to continue to be an inspiration to me spiritually. Body EQ Mind IQ Spirit SQ makes Man complete indeed! Even without my extensive research, I already learned it thanks to the SQ factor that I acquired 40 years ago in the story that starts here. I had to have my own research to validate what I write in my book as part of my habit of being a pure science student in middle or secondary school in Kuala Lumpur! Besides having the habit of a science student, my wired and connected brain causes me to provide links everywhere above to connect to other writings I've made for more detailed information! Yeah, we are all creatures of habits as I've shared on this website www.habitlane.com, here I go again haha!
17 Dec 2019
Procrastination obviously is one of my habits too. It's December 2019 now and I'm kicking off a pre-launch of my book that will be released on a latter date. The pre-launch is on event on 21st and 22nd of December this month! Wish me luck to share how it goes from this post onwards. I am the online writer of journals for sure and my first book will be available online!
..to be continued on the date of 22nd Dec 2019 by clicking here.
4 April 2021
General Conference of the Church
My Happiest Day! A Temple of our Church has been announced to be built in Singapore!!! https://bit.ly/3mlKzSM
It's my happiest day not only because the Lord's temple is going to be so close for all of us living in Malaysia and Singapore but also Geok Lee's birthday is on 4 April. Whether she is alive or in the spirit world, she would still be touching our lives!
Chinese New Year 2022
Year of the Tiger, still with the COVID-19 pandemic
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