Singaporean Man’s Heart-Melting Viral Obituary Still Moves People to Tears One Year Later

March 27, 2017

It will soon be a year since a Singaporean businessman named Ong Peck Lye passed, but his unconventional obituary resonates with many to this date.

Ong, who died on June 8, 2016 at the age of 82, did not personally write the obituary — it was his second son Ong Tiong Yeow who penned it based on the last conversations he had with his father.

Nevertheless, the family agreed to submit it as Ong’s official obituary. Written in first-person poetry, it easily attracted public attention for its honest, heart-melting voice.

It revealed some of the late businessman’s musings and hinted the complicated relationships he had with his family, particularly his children.

According to The Straits Times, Ong’s son Yeow said that his older brother, Ong Tiong Hui, was evicted from their house after converting to Christianity and marrying into a Eurasian family. His younger brother, Ong Tiong Hou, on the other hand, also left after coming out as gay.

But in his obituary, Ong acknowledged Hou and son-in-law Gerald Kavalieratos. What made it even more interesting is that it was published at the height of anti-LGBT news in Singapore, according to Mashable.

Toward the end of the poem, Ong sought for forgiveness:

My sons, I wish they forgave me, as I forgave them

for not forgiving me.

Read the entire obituary below (via The Straits Times):

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