Couple together in life and death
Compiled by NICHOLAS CHENG, TAN SIN CHOW and A. RAMAN
A COUPLE who were married for nearly seven decades were also united in death.
Malaysia Nanban reported that the woman, T. Bagyalakshmi, 82, collapsed and died within minutes of hearing the death of her husband E. Palayam, 91.
Bagyalakshmi was 12 and Palayam was 21 when they married each other.
It was reported that Palayam, who lived in Punnapakam village in Tiruvallur district, about 55km from Chennai, died suddenly on Sunday morning.
When the news reached Bagyalakshmi, who was in her son's house in a neighbouring village, she collapsed. She was rushed to a private hospital but was declared dead on arrival.
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I have a similar story to share. It's not me though. It was my late grandparents, from mom's side. I called my grandpa 'Che' and grandma 'Tok'. Mom told me Tok got married to Che at a very young age, around 14 years old. Mom told me they were very loving couples, living happily with 4 children. Mom said, Che gave all his earnings to Tok, and Tok took good care of the family expenses. Not a single penny with Che. Unlike the parents their age, Tok and Che believed in education. That's why Mom was the second girl from the village to break the girl's tradition and went to university. Girls in her village married young.
Anyhoo, both of them passed away already, in 2004. Che was the first one to leave us. We went back to Kedah about 3 weeks before he answered the calling. I remembered when we were there, he was already sick. Not too sick though. He still could get up for a morning walk or just around the house. So 3 weeks after that, when we were in Miri, our home phone rang. Che left us that night. Mom took the first flight back to Kedah. Che left Tok.
2 weeks later, it was Tok's turn to leave. Exactly 2 weeks. again Mom took the first flight home. My brother was in Penang at that time. So he went to the funeral. He overheard the villagers talking about my grandparents. How loving they were. And how they both passed away not long after each other.
That's till death do us apart huh? In Syaa Allah.
