Chan Luo Er Channel NewsAsia 8 May 15;
SINGAPORE: Most people think of St John's Island as a former quarantine station for cholera-stricken Chinese immigrants or a holding place for political detainees. For eighty-four-year-old Mrs Lim Siew Yong, it is "paradise". The retired school teacher and her family lived on the island for two years, in 1962 and 1963.
"When I looked out from my window, I could see, faraway I think, there was a bungalow, where they say are the detainees,” said Mrs Lim. “The other side was the quarantined station. We also did not step into that area. All these were prohibited areas but the island was so big. It was the beach that I enjoyed most."
Mrs Lim fell in love with the place after a visit. She then put in a transfer request to the Education Ministry to teach at the only school on the island. It had about 100 students and five teachers.
Other factors also contributed to her decision. She and her husband felt that living in Singapore on a teacher's pay was too expensive and their three-year-old son was at an age where he needed space to run around.
On St John's, they lived at the teachers' quarters. Mr Lim taught at the neighbouring Lazarus Island.
Mrs Lim added that contrary to popular belief, island living was not at all backward: "There was a water boat that came to send water to the island and we had electricity, so everything was modern there. When we had the television in 1962, we were so thrilled. We could see programmes."
Mrs Lim's lasting memory is how peaceful and quiet the island was. "Over there, there was so much freedom, it was very carefree; there were no cars, no buses, we just walked around. It was like a little paradise, you had trees all around you,” she described. “Besides that, the paths were so well-made, they were all cemented paths, and very clean. The place was very clean."
Mrs Lim was also given a dog by a gardener on the island - it was a Samoyed which the gardener said had fallen off a cruise liner and swam ashore.
Mrs Lim made the tough decision to leave the island at the end of 1964 as her son was approaching kindergarten age. Although her years at St John's Island were short, she said it will always be home.
SG Heart Map plans to conduct tours for the public to some of these places, during the Jubilee Weekend from Aug 8-10.
It has been some years since Mrs Lim last visited the island and she said she would be delighted to visit it again. The last time she visited the island was in the 1980s with all her three children.
"We brought them in for a picnic, later on, there were these youth camps so we booked the place and brought all three to stay at the youth camps,” said Mrs Lim. “But the island was quite different, even the teachers' quarters were no longer in use."
- CNA/hs
‘Cikgu Lim’ recalls her stint on St John’s Island
Miranda Yeo The Straits Times AsiaOne 10 May 15;
IT HAS been more than half a century since Mrs Lim Siew Yong spent an idyllic two years living and teaching on St John's Island.
But the 84-year-old retiree still fondly recalls collecting seashells by the beach with her husband and son, taking in the fragrant scent of tembusu trees and being greeted as "cikgu" - Malay for teacher - by villagers there.
Her story is one of 80,000 contributed by Singaporeans to SG Heart Map, a cartographical collection of memories of favourite places. So fond are her recollections that she penned a 26-page account of her time on St John's Island.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Grace Fu paid a visit to Mrs Lim yesterday at her home in Lorong Chuan.
Ms Fu, co-chair of the SG50 Environment and Infrastructure Committee, said that she was moved by Mrs Lim's story, which documents her time befriending the villagers and teaching in a small primary school.
"The story helps us trace a part of our history that is perhaps not so well known to Singaporeans," she said.
St John's Island was formerly a quarantine centre for cholera patients, a holding place for political detainees and later a site for a drug rehabilitation centre.
Mrs Lim's stories shed light on the island's village life then. She and her husband - both teachers - had moved to teach in the Southern Islands in 1962, attracted by the subsidised rent there for spacious and luxurious teachers' quarters, she said.
Mrs Lim was moved by the warmth of the villagers who helped her family move into their new home.
She also loved the tranquillity of the island.
"There were no cars and buses. It was like a little paradise with trees all around you," she added.
The Lims moved back to mainland Singapore in December 1963, so that their then four-year-old son could get a kindergarten education.
SG Heart Map was launched last November and has been collecting stories via its Web portal, contribution booths and roving vans.
The stories will be used to create a giant composite map of the 50 most iconic places, which will be unveiled in November.
Further details will be released later.
