Tanjung MCA Youth chief’s family members cremated

GEORGE TOWN: It is the hardest thing for any person to cremate four immediate family members – all in one day.

But this is what Lim Swee Bok, 39, had to go through after what happened on Wednesday when a pre-dawn fire broke out and gutted his double-storey house, killing his four family members.

The four – Swee Bok’s wife Chen Yen, 35, a China national, his mother Lau Sai Poh, 62, his son Lim Yin Chun, 10, and his daughter Lim Jia Ying, nine – were sound asleep when the fire occurred at the house in Pintasan Cecil near Cecil Street Ghaut here.

They were cremated at the Batu Gantong crematorium yesterday.

The remains of Swee Bok’s children were cremated at 11.10am, while the remains of his wife and mother were cremated at about 3.30pm.

Earlier, the last rites were conducted at the funeral parlour near the Sri Saujana Flats in Macallum Street.

Swee Bok, who is the Tanjung MCA Youth chief, tried to conceal his tears but for his relatives and the children’s grandmother, Chen Li Hua, who flew in from China, there was an outpouring of grief. Many family friends and schoolmates of the two children also broke down.

Also present at the ceremony were MCA Youth chief Datuk Chong Sin Woon, state MCA leaders and representatives from the state government, Chinese local associations and societies.

To add to Swee Bok’s misery, his father had passed away from cancer on Nov 5, just days before the fire tragedy happened.