101-year-old woman dies after single-handedly raising 10 children for 56 years

101-year-old woman raised children alone after husband died 56 years ago

A 101-year-old woman has passed away peacefully, leaving behind 10 children whom she brought up single-handedly for 56 years.

Madam Lin Jiao (transliterated from Mandarin) died at 4.45pm last Tuesday (3 Dec) at Ren Ci Nursing Home, reported Shin Min Daily News.

101-year-old woman has six sons & four daughters

Mdm Lin, who died of organ failure due to old age, leaves behind six sons and four daughters.

Her husband died of liver cancer when she was just 45, leaving her to raise 10 children on her own for the past 56 years.

When the nursing home notified her family that the end was near, they rushed to be by Mdm Lin’s side.

Family was poor even before father’s death

Her daughter, Cai Xiuduan (transliterated from Mandarin), 67, told Shin Min that her family was poor during her childhood.

Even before her father’s passing, they often borrowed food from neighbours in the last few years of his life, said Cai, who’s the seventh of her 10 children.

After her husband’s death, Mdm Lin, who had married and moved to Singapore at 16, never remarried.

She relied on farming & odd jobs to support family

Despite the hardships, Mdm Lin didn’t rely on her husband’s relatives. Instead, she turned to farming and odd jobs to support her family.

She would grow vegetables, rear chickens, and sell durians and rambutans she “picked up”, her daughter said.

She also supplanted the family income by doing part-time work like sewing clothes at a factory.

Her four eldest children started working to support the family, while the younger ones continued studying. However, many of them had to stop schooling at the secondary level due to financial constraints.

101-year-old woman had gentle but unwavering personality

According to Ms Cai, her mother had a gentle yet unwavering personality.

Her only wish was to improve her children’s lives, and her aspirations were simple — she wanted them to be safe and healthy.

Because of that, she suffered a lot but won their admiration, she added.

She liked to return to hometown in Fujian

By the 1980s, the family’s financial situation improved, allowing them to move into an HDB flat.

They also began taking Mdm Lin back to her hometown in Fujian, China, once a year.

Ms. Cai shared that her mother cherished these trips and would stay for about half a month each time, reuniting with relatives.

While Mdm Lin didn’t have many hobbies, she enjoyed listening to Hokkien songs and watching wayang performances.

She also preferred simple meals, with her favourites being sweet potato porridge, leafy greens, and pickled mustard greens.

Also read: 105-year-old great-great-grandma in S’pore dies, lived under the same roof with 5 generations of family

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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News.