AFTER Madam Indranee Nadisen's own brood - five boys and a girl - started going to school, she became bored at home, so she took in foster children.

Looking after these children - mostly abandoned or from families who were unable to provide for them - became her life's work over the next 32 years.

With 43 children having passed through her hands, she holds the record under the Fostering Scheme here.

Madam Indranee, herself adopted by an Indian family when she was a baby, called it a day as a foster mum in July because of persistent shoulder problems.

Yesterday, she was thanked for her contributions at a party organised by the Ministry for Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS).

A moved MCYS minister Vivian Balakrishnan, his voice trembling, thanked Madam Indranee for the love she has shown the children she has taken in; he also suggested that she be named an honorary foster mother.

The 68-year-old grandmother of nine is certainly sorry to have to stop doing what she loves.

Referring to her problem shoulder, she said as tears welled in her eyes: 'If not for my health, I would carry on. I love children.

'When the child runs to me, I cannot carry them now. It's not nice to offend them like that.'

Close as she is to her wards, she prefers to cut ties cleanly when they leave her home, sometimes to return to their parents or to go live with adoptive parents.

'I don't want to keep in touch. If they are back with their parents, or if they have a proper home, then I'm happy for them,' she said.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.