There was once a fire in the old Robinson’s store at Raffles. An old building which was decorated heavily and full of lights. I always said one day that it would catch on fire. I had already left Robinson’s by then. I had left Robinson’s in 1970 and had joined Singapore Casket. The fire was in 1972, I had gone to buy some cards at Robinson’s. There was a very nice and well spoken boy that ran the lifts in the building. He always used to say come here Ma’am, I’ll take you to whichever floor you want to go. Yvonne was with me and she had to go back to work, so I said no, I’ll go now too. If I had gone in the lift, it would have been the end of me. As the lift door closed, the fire had broken out. There were 13 people trapped in the lift and all of them perished in the lift. They had tried to open the lift door but they couldn’t. They could just hear the screaming inside. It was very sad. The boy that was running the lift was not supposed to be there, but he was hard working and had started work early. Very unlucky and very sad. There were people screaming everywhere and the smoke was so thick. People were trapped and many didn’t know how to get out of the building, people had lost their way and become disoriented. If I had still been working there, I would have died too. The lady I used to work with was trapped in the store. She had to climb out of the window and jump across to the ledge on the opposite side but it was too far and she fell and died. It was very sad. I was working at Singapore Casket and had to go and pick up the bodies of those killed in the fire. Nothing much left of them. All burnt so badly. There were two girls embracing each other burnt to skeletons and ash. We made up the coffins but it was so hard to work out the bodies. Some were just bones and ashes and we didn’t know which went with which. They identified through the dentures and teeth. We tried our best to work out the bodies and then we cremated everything. I’ll never forget that.
Robinson’s pay was very little and I had a family to raise.
The money I was getting from Robinson’s made it hard to look after the
children. I needed to get more work. I had a friend working in a cabaret, but
I didn’t want to work there. I wanted to go to Johore and work as a cashier
for one of the nightclubs there. But Uncle Carlo did not want me to do that
because he knew what life would be like for me in a place like that.
On my day’s off at Robinson’s I used to help out at Singapore Casket.
Uncle Carlo wanted me to learn the job, but I did not want to because it was
not to my liking. He encouraged me to come and do a little bit of work there
so I did some work cutting the side sheets, sewing black covers for the wood
coffins to be exported and sewing shrouds. I was paid $5 for cutting sidesheets
and $10 for the shrouds. He used to ask me to go into the embalming room to
watch how they do it. It made me feel very uncomfortable but I went in and tried
to learn with his encouragement. Eventually he encouraged me to leave Robinson’s
and work in Casket. My boss at Robinson’s was very reluctant to let me
go. He said, “Why do you want to go to a morbid place to work?”
I said I had to because I have a family to raise. He tried to get me a job somewhere
else but they could not give me better pay because of the union. So I went to
Singapore Casket. I learnt how to sew post mortem cases and how to clean up
and bathe the bodies. With that, I made good money. At the end of the month
I’d get about $300 to $400 dollars. Every little thing is $5 and it adds
up quickly. It was good money. I used to attend the funerals. Eventually Uncle
Carlo got me to do embalming but I was very frightened. I’ll never forget
my first case. It was a suicidal case. I had gone to Seligie house to get the
batteries for my hearing aid and whilst I was there my friend and I saw this
girl jump off the building. I was shivering in my shoes. My friend wanted to
have a look but I said No thanks and went back to work. Lo and behold the very
same person I had to collect from the hospital. She was a mess after jumping
down from 18 stories. She had no face and every part of her body was smashed.
She was shapeless. I had to remake her shape. Took me about 24 hours to stitch
her up. I made her up and told the family I did the best I could. They had covered
her face and had a closed coffin. That was my first case. It was a bit of a
morbid job but it was also interesting. I did like embalming. You learn about
and see the different parts of the body. You learn of what they die of and how
their body is effected. Sometimes there were easy cases and sometimes they were
hard. Sometimes the embalming fluid would not go into the body. I would talk
to them and I’d say “Please, please take the fluid in”. Sometimes
the eyes won’t close and I’d say “Please, please close your
eyes.” And eventually the eyes would shut. I would talk to them and I
would tell them that I’d do the best for them. Make them look pretty once
again and dress them up. I had to learn to become hard and strong because I
needed to be. When I first started when I saw the children crying for their
parents, I’d be crying to. The pallbearers would say “What are you
crying for?” I’d say “I cannot help it, I cry everytime I
see the children crying”. After that I had to learn to harden myself.
I had to get used to the customs of the different people. There was this case
where the wife took the broom and beat the coffin because her husband had died
young. Sometimes they were very amusing. There was an Indian funeral where in
the middle of the service, suddenly there was screaming and screeching and the
women were tearing their hair and falling over the coffin. I said, “Please
be calm.” I got so shocked. Some people can be very hysterical. The Jewish
people make a lot of noise in their funerals, breaking pots and banging things.
It’s interesting to see the different funerals. I remember a case where
a young girl wanted to bury her Moslem father. We were not allowed to embalm
Moslems. The man had married a catholic woman and the children were raised catholic.
I believe he had become a catholic too. Of the 5 daughters he had, 2 had become
nuns. However, anyone who is or was Moslem by Moslem law cannot change their
religion. And we could not embalm a Moslem person. The family pleaded with me,
but I could not do anything for them. I had to sit with them and gently say,
“It does not matter where he is buried, we will pray for his soul.”
She was crying and pleading to not let them take her father’s body away.
I said, “Don’t cry, your father is happy in heaven, we just pray
for him.” I had to tell her that it is the law here in Singapore. I then
asked the Moslem priest, the Kadi, if they can say their Christian prayers at
the Moslem funeral. The Kadi was very kind, he allowed the women to say their
prayers, touch the body and to follow the body to be buried, which would normally
not be allowed.
Once I was embalming late at night. It was after 12 o’clock. I heard my name being called. I thought it was one of the other embalmers. I heard this person calling me slowly but very clearly, “Fawn….Fawn…..”. I answered, “Yes?” There was nothing but silence. I had thought it was Martin, who also worked there. I said “Martin, don’t play the fool with me. I’m very frightened. Don’t do this to me.” Nothing but silence. Then I was just covered with goosebumps. I knew this was something not natural. I said my prayers and I spoke to the spirit. I said, “Please…please don’t disturb me. Don’t make me frightened. If I run out now, I will never come back again. I will never do any more embalming. Please…please, I’m very frightened.” I was shivering. The after that I had courage and I felt at peace. Then I continued with my work. After I finished working, I went downstairs and asked one of the other people there if Martin had been at work. I was told that there was nobody here so late in the night. Now, I know that it was Guy Webb. He was my cousin, an embalmer too who had committed suicide due to depression. He was very fond of me when he had been alive. He was Uncle Carlo’s 3rd child. After he had died, people used to hear a lot of things. Footsteps when there was nobody around. This was in the old building of Singapore Casket. The day before the old building was broken down, Bernard, one of the employers at Casket said he had an encounter which he could not work out whether it was a dream or whether it was actually happening although he was not sleeping. He said Guy came to up and looked at him, turned his back and walked out of the building, crossed the road onto the other side and disappeared. That was the end. Guy loved his work and he taught all the embalmers even me. He was strict but very kind. He used to scold Bernard who always laughed when he was learning. He helped me to embalm when I was finding it hard to do it. I remember, when I just started, he used to come to me covered in blood and I’d say “Go away, go away, don’t touch me”. But he said “Don’t be frightened, I’ll teach you how to do it”. After that, I was not frightened anymore. I’d be working late at night with up to 7 cases. I sometimes imagine something getting up but I’d tell myself, don’t be silly.
Today I’ve seen all my children married and I have grand children and great grandchildren.
| Back to Top |