Mrs. Siew Lan Lim

Mrs. Siew Lan Lim was born in Hainan, China in 1920. She was betrothed to Jit Ching Lim at age six and married to him in China in 1936 at the age of 16 when he was 20. She remained in China until she was age 20 when she migrated to Kuala Lumpur to join her husband. It was in Kuala Lumpur that she gave birth to her first child Kuei Fon. She subsequently moved to Sabah where she lived until she migrated to Canada in 1980 along with her husband and 2 sons Larry and Jeffrey.

Although she did not have much of a formal education, she had been smart, resourceful and resilient. In the early years of living in Sabah, she had helped her husband build and run their business operating a coffee shop cum grocery store. When her husband took sick in the 40’s and had to go to Singapore for treatments, their financial resources were depleted. During this period she had to secure loans from other businesses in the community to keep the business afloat. This was successfully executed until the return of her husband from Singapore.

In spite of her petite physique, she had been physically tough as nail. As she lived in a small town in the early 1940’s she had to fetch water from the river for home consumption by carrying 2 large pails on a pole each time. She was doing this even when she was pregnant with her third son Frank! She also performed most of the heavy physical tasks in the shop like roasting large woks of coffee beans and carrying sacks of rice weighing more than 50 lbs.

In the child rearing arena, she was a kind and loving mother who at the same time was the disciplinarian who kept her 10 children in line. They have all turned out alright and became successful upstanding adults with good moral compass. She had enjoyed life surrounded by her children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. She passed away peacefully with her children by her bedside having lived a good long life. She was predeceased by her husband in 1987 and was survived by 8 children, 25 grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.

Arrangements under the direction of Forest Lawn Funeral Home, Burnaby, BC.