NUS student who died after Clementi crash thought about her own funeral
The father of a girl who died in a car crash posted a moving tribute to his daughter online, revealing that she had penned down her thoughts about her funeral.
In a tribute to his only child, Kathy, 19, who died after a taxi she was riding in crashed into another car last week, Keith Ong posted on Monday (23 April) that he felt it “weird and inauspicious” for her to write such a thing. But, he added, he was thankful she wrote it as “it is the closest I can get to hearing you” – since he didn’t get the chance to have a last word with Kathy.
The last time they had seen each other, he said, was last Tuesday evening.
Keith Ong’s public post included a photograph of a board displayed at Kathy’s wake, on which was a written piece attributed to his daughter about her thoughts of death: “Today is my funeral. A water hyacinth woven coffin (they’re sustainable and biodegradable – I hurt the environment enough while alive) lies in the centre, at the front of a white glassy wall. There are carefully arranged flowers coloring the place, a warmer softer hue from good-willed acquaintances of the bereaved, my loved ones.”
Kathy was riding in the back seat of the taxi along with three of her friends when the accident happened at the Clementi Road and Commonwealth Avenue West intersection at about 7.27pm last Thursday (19 April). She was later pronounced dead in hospital.
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